MARY TIMONY BAND Issue #32

The Shapes We Make

By Anna Breshears
Published: June 1st, 2007 | 12:00am

In the early ’90s, Mary Timony played a mean guitar and lent her whisper-growl voice to D.C.-based, all-female Autoclave before joining Helium, the band for which she’s best known, for three albums and a handful of EPs. Helium’s The Dirt Of Luck (1995) and The Magic City (1997) were two of the decade’s finest indie releases. After the band dissolved, Timony’s medieval-inspired goth-folk solo projects were awkward and confusing affairs that left fans wondering where she left her rocknroll spirit. Luckily, she bounced back to life with 2005’s Ex Hex and continues to expand on her early punk-gal roots with The Shapes We Make.

Shapes delivers tuneful, quirky rock that’s also dark and thoughtful. “Sharpshooter” and “Curious Minds” are wind-in-your-hair romps, while the slower, brooding “Pink Clouds” incorporates some of Helium’s droney elements and lets Timony break out serious riffage. On “Rockman,” she again demonstrates her impressive guitar work, jumping from melodic, folk-y verses to nimble, cascading choruses. One of Shapes’ strongest songs is “Pause/Off,” featuring Sabbath-y organ breaks and a feminist message related in a non-preachy, cheeky narrative that deserves to be blasted at pro-choice rallies everywhere: “Get your laws off my body / Mister / Paws off / Supreme Court misters / Don’t mess around with me and my sisters.”

On Shapes, Timony and company are accessible but never empty, which is why we’re still crushing on her after all these years.