Alt/pop rock band Life as Mary Gets Dramatic on New Single “Overcoat”
There’s something interesting about alt /pop rock band Life as Mary.
The indie Atlanta based band/group, led by a solo artist known only as Mary, has made a name for herself by releasing tracks heavily inspired by the slew of female pop rock artists of the 2000s. But Mary’s love of the female pop rock artists of the 2000s is no accident. Mary was, in fact, in a band in the late 90s/early 2000s and even recorded an album (The Aaron Sessions) which until 2018 was unreleased. “I was playing the songs live in the early 2000’s and made the recording,” Mary said of The Aaron Sessions. “ I made the decision to get out of the music scene shortly after making the recording.” That was in 2003.
Fast forward 15 years later to 2018. Life as Mary returns to the scene with a hot new track entitled “Jacki” and the release of the now Instagram famous The Aaron Sessions. Since then, Mary has been recording new material inspired by 2000s female pop rock artists and making the world nostalgic for a period in music that seems to be long dead. Mary’s latest release, the Joel McCreight produced “Overcoat”, is a 2000s pop rock lover’s dream track. With its edgy pop rock vibe, it feels straight out of 2005. But that’s a-okay by me.
“Overcoat” is a melodramatic pop rock ballad that captures the ups and downs of cutting off an old relationship. “The song is an expression of unwanted feelings, like jealousy, etc., and it’s from the female perspective. She’s watching this long, drawn out break up from the wings and hopeful that things will work out,” Mary said about the song in my interview with her.
The track opens with a dramatic bassline that lurks in the background while Mary laments about a mystery woman who “wears your memory like an overcoat” as if to say she’s still (literally) carrying around the baggage of the previous relationship. “Breaking things off can be a long and tricky process. If there isn’t a clean break then things can become complicated with whoever the someone new is in your life,” Mary said. And its obvious that’s the backstory that haunts this song.
The metaphoric lyrics about “breaking things off” cut deep as the song progresses through the first verse to the point where it could almost pass for Siouxsie and the Banshees, Jack Off Jill or The Birthday Massacre gothic. “Overcoat” is spellbinding and definitely goes to a place. But I wouldn’t classify it as a gothic song, at all. “Overcoat” is about as gothic as Kelly Clarkson’s music was on her My December album, which is not very. But there is a similarity in the approach to the darker sides of human emotions.
There is something foreboding that overshadows the track, a mood which is defined by the bassline and solidified by Mary’s clear spoken vocals delivering cloak-and- dagger stabbing lyrics. The mystery woman Mary sings about is not to be messed with. She’s as mad as the “Opheliac” Emilie Autumn sings about, as unforgiving as the woman Anna Nalick sings of on “In the Rough”, as ready to haunt as the woman Shirley Manson sings of on “Vow,” as pissed off as Amy Lee on “Call Me When You’re Sober,” and as direct with her feelings as Alana Grace is on many of her songs. Mary sings with the same level of conviction that the aforementioned a-listers do — a no nonsense type of conviction that makes the listener really feel the emotions this woman is going through. You feel the jealousy, angst, and fury — all of which run wild throughout the song. That’s why the bright and cheery chorus that was a little more Colbie Caillait than anyone else took me by surprise. I know about the typical angsty pop punk/pop rock songs. I grew up on them. And I know they almost never include fun poppy choruses — the choruses are more in-your-face. I was expecting that kind of chorus on “Overcoat” -something poppy but keeping in tune with the mood that was created in the first verse. Maybe something early New Years Day-eque. But it never happened. Instead what I got was pure pop sunshine a la Colbie Caillait — which is fine, I love Colbie Caillait — but at first I didn’t think it was the right match for this song. Or so I thought.
Fast forward a bunch of listens later.
The chorus had really grown on me! I realized it was the perfect fit because this is, as Mary said herself, a song about relationship problems. The light and dark moods of the song reflect the the good and the bad of the breakup. As much as the chorus didn’t seem to fit at first, the more I listened to the song, the more I realized the song needed that particular chorus more than anything.
The bottom line is “Overcoat” is a melodramatic throwback cloaked heavily in 2000s pop rock. At times I felt an early New Years Day vibe on the track- think: “Ready Aim Misfire” but more mature. At other times I felt the influence of The Brilliant Things, Alana Grace, Garbage, Liz Phair and the Dollyrots. But in the end, “Overcoat” felt to me like this mashup of The Brilliant Things “Alone”mixed with Anna Nalick’s “In the Rough” and Garabage’s “Vow.” A strange combo, I know - especially considering this song sounds nothing like those songs, at all! But there’s something reminiscent about those songs in “Overcoat” — like you can feel that they may have served as an inspiration.
But overall “Overcoat” is much more punk (early Joan Jett style) to be compared with pop rock contemporaries. And yet the song is not really punk, at all. But that’s the thing. You really can’t categorize this track. Mary doesn’t sound like any artist, even though she reminds me of a whole list of them wrapped into one. But ultimately Mary’s originality shines through. She is purely her own artist. And that’s what the makes the song so good — there’s this juxaposition of something that’s totally different and yet familiar at the same time. There are points where you feel like this song could have easily been a top ten hit done by one of those female pop rock artists of the 2000s. It’s wonderful. And it makes me hope that Mary puts out more songs written in this same style soon. She really has a knack for this. But in the meantime “Overcoat” satisfies my hunger for the throwback pop rock sound of the 2000s. And if you’re feeling that way too, “Overcoat” might just satisfy your fix.
