Photo by: Aleksandra Savchenko
Sometimes the most uncomfortable person to look back on is yourself. On ‘anymore’, Cork five-piece Other Mother revisit a period of illness, body-image struggles and brutal self-criticism, transforming those experiences into something that retains their anger while viewing it from a more compassionate distance.
The first taste of forthcoming EP Can’t Help But Feel Dramatic, ‘anymore’ marks a potent return for a band whose self-described “Bubblegrunge” sits somewhere between alt-rock, post-punk, electronic experimentation and feminine rage. Gritty guitars collide with atmospheric synths and intricate melodic details, while a restless rhythm keeps the track moving despite the heaviness of its subject.
At its centre is vocalist Willow Esteve’s relationship with her body during a period of poor health and heavy medication.
“I wrote ‘anymore’ during a time in my life where I was quite unwell and was on a lot of medications,” she explains. “It’s based on the feelings of disgust I had towards my body and my health at the time.”
Looking back, however, Willow hears something else: “It’s sad to look back and see how hard I was on myself; this song is a reminder to me to be kinder to me and my body.”
That hindsight gives ‘anymore’ its emotional weight. The song preserves the intensity of what Willow felt without treating those thoughts as objective truth. There’s a painful recognition that the body being criticised was also the body attempting to navigate illness.
Other Mother don’t soften that realisation into an easy self-love anthem. The track still has teeth.
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Wavefield Recordings, ‘anymore’ distinguishes itself from straightforward grunge revivalism through the band’s willingness to complicate its guitar-driven foundations. Keyboards and electronic textures add atmosphere, while the rhythm section turns frustration into something surprisingly physical and danceable.
Their collaborative process contributes to that depth. Willow and guitarist Fionn Cogan begin shaping songs alongside keyboardist Bláthnaid Marsh before bassist Cathal O’Sullivan and drummer Conor O’Regan develop the ideas further, often taking them somewhere unexpected.
That unpredictability suits a band whose early influences range from Radiohead to Fiona Apple and Honey Glaze. Other Mother aren’t particularly interested in keeping beauty, abrasion, vulnerability and rage in separate boxes; ‘anymore’ works because all of them are allowed into the same room.
It also makes for a compelling introduction to Can’t Help But Feel Dramatic. There’s self-awareness in that EP title, but little apology. Other Mother understands that difficult experiences sometimes deserve to sound enormous.
‘anymore’ turns self-disgust into something sharper and ultimately more understanding. Rather than erasing the anger of the person who originally wrote it, Other Mother preserve that moment honestly while recognising how unfair some of that anger was. For a band fuelled by feminine rage, confronting what happens when that rage turns inward proves particularly powerful.
