Goodbye Peggy is the second album release from Idaho, USA-based rock, shoegaze and post-punk band Porcelain Tongue. An exploration of loss, grief and acceptance, it promises an emotional story across its seven tracks.

By Graeme Smith

The album opens with Support. It’s a slow, brooding ballad that takes its time to unfold. A looping guitar melody starts things off before we get snatches of vocals and drums. It creates a strong emotional connection from very little before widening out to a lively rock landscape. It’s a brilliant start.

Held Up is coolly intimate, combining an echoing Great Plains aesthetic with a DIY indie edge. Back Pains provides an early highlight with its terse, jangly composition and soulful vocals. Quick to Blame is urgent and dynamic while Comply is bluesy and defiant.

Feel Your Pain is the album’s emotional lowpoint. In a universal coincidence, vocalist and guitarist Max Voulelis wrote its line “death will come, if not now, eventually” moments before receiving a call that a person dear to him has passed away. Its deliberate, plodding rhythm and longing vocals become the focal point of the album’s themes.

Title track then Goodbye Peggy closes the album with a simmering, expressive epic that lays it all out there over six and a half minutes.

With Goodbye Peggy, Porcelain Tongue are bringing something fresh and interesting to the rock and punk scene. What they are also bringing is raw honesty in their lyrics and a complex instrumental soundscape that perfectly emotes difficult themes. We may well look back at it as an era-defining record.

Porcelain Tongue are Max Voulelis on guitar and vocals, Peter Maguire on guitar, Max Ball on drums and Braden Cook on bass. They’ve become known locally for their intimate live shows but it feels like the time is now for them to gain a wider audience. We’re certainly glad to share them with you. Goodbye Peggy is out now via Mishap Records, with exclusive vinyl copies for sale. and you can check it out below.