Breakup records come in all shapes and sizes, and the history of rock ‘n’ roll is littered with them. Rumours, Sea Change, Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Spaceeach, in its own way, soundtracks the bitter interior states created by a newly deceased relationship. No One Mind’s self-titled debut is a glorious collection of fractured, imaginative songs in this vein, straddling indie rock, psychedelia, noise, and pop with ease. It’s a potent breakup record, though it doesn’t appear that way on the surface.
The band originally convened after Missy Thangs, Ellis Anderson, and Noah Dehmer broke away acrimoniously from their previous group, Toddlers, which allegedly ended with one email. Sour feelings animate a lot of these songs; they feel confident and unaffected but ripple with unresolved tension. Opener “Folk Wagon” straps a krautrock bass line and angelic synths under Anderson’s solemn, cryptic vocals, building slowly into a transcendent freak-out of a conclusion. No One Mind is great at building these sorts of sweeping, panoramic moments, but the band has additional songwriting modes. “Bad Attitude” dials down the furor in favor of Sunday-morning psych bliss, as does “Big Talking Man,” which channels the unhurried, off-kilter pop sensibilities of Broadcast. These numbers are as grand as the noisier ones, a product of the chemistry among the band’s members.
The overall production is solid, too. Thangs, who has recorded a number of Triangle bands over the years, engineered and mixed the album, and her exquisite attention to detail shows. Though many effects and odd sounds inhabit these songs, everything sounds crisp and distinct, busy but never complicated. You never feel trapped in a digital reverb castle or brickwalled guitars that give the illusion of loudness, mistakes that can sink otherwise good records. No One Mind has masterfully mined the shards of a breakup for an excellent first record, building something much more sturdy than the sum of its parts.
