By Ryan G

I’ll won’t shut up about the music scene of Columbus, Ohio until it isn’t slept on any longer. And then, I still won’t shut up. The latest evidence of this inner drive of yours truly is the long awaited LP of psych pop collective mungbean.

If you want an idea of what you’re in for, I’ll tell you about a conversation I had with vocalist Emma Swysgood a few years ago. We bonded over how much we enjoyed the live set of Polyenso at Big Room Bar. Polyenso is a psych pop project that began as a post hardcore group, Oceana, which appealed to scene kids. While I was never a true scene kid, Emma and I noted how our own music taste evolution seemed to mirror the evolution of Polyenso—started out angsty, and then got weird.

mungbean doesn’t squash down angst, but the elements that shine the brightest in their aptly titled I Love You Say It Back are very polished. Even the title itself seems to have multiple layers of meaning. “Say it back” is something I often see on Instagram stories, used in a whimsical manner. The whole title mixes that whimsical feeling with some dark uncertainty, apt for this year and really the human experience in general.

The music overall is very, erm, cool. I hesitate to use the word because of the redundancy with the fact that one of the album’s singles has “cool” as its name, but it’s true. mungbean does a great job of fleshing themes in each song out to its full potential, when it comes to a melody or a hook. The horn like synth hook loops on repeat in the title track, and the new wave like guitar tones in “Slow Motion” or the almost punk-like chaos in “party.” In fact, the latter could almost be interpreted as a riot grrl inspired piece, but I’m also wary of music writers that use that term liberally—so I hope I’m not out of place there.

The collective that makes up mungbean seems to constantly be evolving, but you can count on the power duo that is Emma Swysgood and Sean Gleeson leading the way with vocals that occupy that middle ground between angst and zone-out material, with complimentary instrumentation that knows when to be all encompassing and when to pull back. I Love You Say It Back certainly runs the gamut of this spectrum, but it’s very consistent all the same. I find it to be a very strong debut full length. In the past, I’ve been wary of Columbus bands getting too lost in the “jams” in place of an accessible element (I’m not saying bands should all go mainstream, don’t get it twisted), so it’s refreshing to find a band that went the minimalist route and found a happy medium between that full indie and bigger picture alternative sound.

Follow mungbean on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Support the album on bandcamp.