Album Review: Ha, Ha, He. by Mourn

It was unclear just a few months ago whether or not Mourn would be releasing a new album anytime soon. The band took to social media back in December, accusing their Spanish label Sones of withholding payments and effectively holding their album "hostage." It was a blunt and bold move and one that obviously paid off, as six months later, Ha, Ha, He. has thankfully seen the light of day.

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When Mourn recorded Ha, Ha, He., they were just about to enter their twenties, and their second album reflects all the intensity and changes of those years. The band trades the PJ Harvey-meets-Nirvana outbursts of their self-titled debut for slightly less expected influences: Throwing Muses and the mid-'90s heyday of Chicago post-rock, both of which suit Mourn's free-flowing emotions perfectly. The quick-shifting tempos and rhythms of "Flee" reveal a band that's more serious about its music without overworking it, a feeling emphasized by "Storyteller"'s jazzy chords and impressive counterpoint.

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Mourn were never going to be just another indie band. Their self-titled debut album from 2014 was full of hints to this effect, if you were listening. On Ha, Ha, He., however, their uniqueness manifests itself no longer as hints but as a central fact of the album. That they’ve grown more unique is evident from the opening track.

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Catalonian quartet Mourn aren’t the cool kids in school; they’re the cool version of the kids sitting in the back of the class. The kids who wear their band shirts with absolute pride, who make clever references with voracious appetite for more, who crack jokes that would be darkly funny if you were lucky enough to be listening. It’s all there from their early press photos in which the teenagers look straight into the camera, as if daring you to question a cool bunch of frustrated youths for wearing a shirt bearing the name of one of the most stereotypical groups for frustrated youth.

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Try as they might, Mourn couldn’t help but show their age on their 2015 debut—prompted by classroom boredom, disdain for specific classmates and disdain for high school’s general social schematic, Mourn was clearly from the perspective of teenagers who really wish they weren’t. “They listen to music that doesn’t make you think about anything,” Carla Pérez Vas said of her peers, while she and Jazz Rodríguez Bueno gravitated to Sleater-Kinney, Sunny Day Real Estate, and PJ Harvey, thoughtful, strident acts who were in their prime before the duo were even born. Less than a year and a half later, Mourn’s age is a non-issue: they just sound like an indie rock band in 2016 that wishes it wasn’t.

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If music is a form of escapism, then it’s surely at its most apt in that capacity when the escapists inhabit a region which is plotting an escape of its own. MOURN hail from Catalonia, where the pro-independence movement has gained traction in recent times. The shadowy second full-length effort from the punk-leaning foursome – with a crucially melodic edge – may not be a separatist soundtrack, but it possesses a fiercely independent spirit.

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There are moments on Ha, Ha, He. – the youthful Catalonian quartet’s sophomore LP – when there’s a distinct impression of listening to several House of Love tracks played at the same time. Which is no bad thing; short and snappy it may be – its 12 tracks are done and dusted within half an hour – yet the band still manage to cultivate dramatic intent amidst the jangly guitars and posturing hooks.

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If you would've asked Carl and I that we'd still be writing this feature a few months ago, we would've been surprised. But we just can't help ourselves, seeing as this year has been exceptionally rich in terms of album releases. So how did we fare with our monthly "leftovers" this time around? Well, Carl is effusively championing Mourn's second effort, as he did with other rising female singer-songwriters like Margaret Glaspy and Mitski.

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Last year, Catalonian teens MOURN took on the system and won. In December, the band accused their Spanish label Sones on social media of withholding payments and keeping their second album Ha Ha He “hostage”. It was a ballsy move that paid off – just six months on, they’ve got their album and have made it quite clear that despite their tender ages, (three of the quartet’s members, frontwoman Jazz Rodríguez Bueno, drummer Antonio Postius Echeverría and guitarist/vocalist Carla Pérez Vas are 19 while bassist Leia Rodríguez Bueno is still only 16) these youngsters are nobody’s fools.

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Those who’ve gone through their late teenage years might remember them as times of very rapid change. Although Barcelona punk(ish) outfit Mourn—four kids who can’t legally drink alcohol in the United States (including one who wouldn’t be old enough to vote)—is only 16 months removed from its self-titled debut, follow-up Ha, Ha, He. matures almost as a matter of course.

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