Hello Mary ‘Emita Ox’ Album Review

New York three-piece Hello Mary are no slouches when it comes to their music. Having dropped their self-titled debut album in 2023, the band are already back with another collection of songs and, as “Float” misleading pulls you into this opening notes of ‘Emita Ox’, it’s apparent that there is going to be no drop in quality given the short time between releases.

Hitting shelves this week, the album release comes as the band have just wrapped up a UK tour with critically-acclaimed alt-rockers American Football. As beautiful as it is unpredictably wild, ‘Emita Ox’ is guaranteed to take you on one hell of a ride and, even by the mid-section of second track, and recent single “0%”, you should be ready to expect the unexpected from the three High School friends. Calm and soothing one moment, a mere few seconds later and you’ll find the band careering chaotically into something bordering on noise-rock.

“Knowing You”, midway through the album on the other hand, is one of the more straightforward, less unpredictable offerings on the album. An acoustic strum accompanies mesmerising vocals as the album builds to a wall-shaking climax. Elsewhere “Heavy Sleeper” takes the album down a gentler more melodic route while “Hiyeahi” shows off the more experimental side of Hello Mary’s persona.

‘Emita Ox’ plays out to the gentle strum of “Everything We Do”, a melancholic track which could best be described as the calm after the storm. In some ways, it’s the perfect end to an album that is full of surprising twists and turns. A surprising contradiction to the blend of 90s inspired alt-rock, shoegaze and experimental passages that makes up the rest of this album, it brings the mood of the album right down to the kind of level that you need after the twisting, turning musical journey Hello Mary have just taken you on.

‘Emita Fox’ is out today through Frenchkiss Records and you can pick up your copy from here.