This One Time, On Bandcamp: Rachel Maria Cox

Rachel Maria Cox — Sydney, New South Wales

Sydney muso Rachel Maria Cox has been getting a solid bit of attention this week for their new tune, Emotionally Untidy — and, frankly, rightly bloody so.

Two years on from founding the excellent label/booking agency Sad Grrrls Club — and organising its two annual events to date — Cox has well and truly grown into themself as a capable and mature singer and songwriter, having demonstrated tangible growth over the course of their releases, starting from their earliest material on 2014's demo collection and 2015's debut EP, Home.

It was with last year's confessional I Just Have A Lot Of Feelings EP that Cox began to more prominently show elements of the musician that they had the potential to become — a fact reiterated by a Vanda & Young Songwriting Comp shortlist nod (for Netflix & Dinner For Six) and airplay on both triple j and triple j Unearthed, plus community radio, for single cut A Phone I Can't Use — and, with Emotionally Untidy, it now feels like a vision pretty much completely realised.

Cox's lyricism (which, listening back through their oeuvre, has clearly always been one of their strongest suits) is sharper than ever, showing a true talent for conveying insightful, conversational tone through the written, and sung, word.

This newest song is about, to crib from Cox themself, "when you find yourself in a situation where your social life is more confusing and tangled than you’d like". Their casual references to energy drinks and late nights as potential causes for their ailing heart function — and mentions of when "that guy who wrote that song about me has started drunk texting", among other moments — are effortless in the way they transcend their everyday-observation origins with their natural melodiousness and resonance, pulling the listener in early and keeping them there through the song's punchy four-minute run time.

While Cox is undoubtedly the creative centre on which the song lives and dies, their vocals and keys are ably backed by a four-piece band of musicians (guitarists Josh Gibson and Jack Lundie, bassist Wil Houlcroft and drummer James Edge) to imbue Emotionally Untidy with a fundamental, inescapably infectious, energy that, more than anything, makes me incredibly excited to hear the rest of their impending debut LP.

The swiftly rising Sydney muso has quite a few shows in the pipeline, if you like what you hear — they're playing at Newcastle's Wicking Out! Festival on Saturday 10 June, as part of the Reverence Hotel's Acoustic In June Sundays on 11 June, at the Mulgara 'Take On The Ration' Challenge on Saturday 17 June, at the Newland Street Newcastle launch on 25 June and supporting Ruby Fields at the Hudson Ballroom on 29 June.

To cap it off, they'll be launching Emotionally Untidy itself with a special launch show with Throw Me To The Wolves and Good Pash at Newy's Cambridge Hotel on Saturday 1 July. See the Facebook event page for more details.

Releases

Emotionally Untidy — Single, Jun 2017

I Just Have A Lot Of Feelings — EP, Jul 2016

Home — EP, Feb 2015

Hear more tracks on Bandcamp.

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