Mary Timony Turns the Energy and Emotions From a Bad Situation Into a Positive One on Untame The Tiger
Photo Credit: Chris Grady
Mary Timony is a lifer. Since 1990, Timony has fronted multiple bands, starting with Autoclave, a foundational band in the Riot grrrl scene, moving onto to Helium (an influential band in their own right), the 2010s supergroup Wild Flag (whose self-titled album is one of the most perfect albums of the 2010s, a one-and-done-drop-the-mic masterpiece), and currently the great band Ex Hex. Timony was there in the ‘90s when major labels had boutique indie labels, signing small indie bands to work with glossy LA record producers that changed their sound (only to later get dropped when the major label bubble burst), to the rise of the mp3 blogs in the 2000s, to the current reality of just trying to survive, making a living as a musician in the challenging streaming climate. Through it all, Mary Timony has persevered. All of that music stuff is secondary, though, to real life. In a short period of time, Timony lost her mom and dad, and oh yeah, also suffered the end of a long-time relationship. The issues of the music business sure seem secondary in the midst of losing the most important people in your life, and that’s what her latest album, Untame the Tiger, is all about.
Working alongside Joe Wong (composer of Russian Doll, host of The Trap Set podcast, a great artist in his own right), Untame the Tiger is about coming out the other side of serious hardship still intact. You won’t ever fully be the same person after events like what Timony went through, but you are just trying to make it through the best you can, with the security blanket being your trusty guitar. In a discussion on the Talkhouse podcast with co-producer Joe Wong, Timony summed it up perfectly: “Music is the only thing that makes me feel like a normal person.” Who needs therapy when you’ve got a pen, a pad of paper, your guitar and you are making music with your friends?
And make no mistake, Mary Timony is one of the great guitar players of our time, she says as much with her shredding solos as she does with her moving lyrics. On the opening track “No Thirds,” Timony sings “the dead leaves are blowing around in my mind, we only know this one life at a time,” followed by an incredible guitar solo, as if her guitar is the world’s greatest duet partner on this haunting and moving song. When you know what Mary Timony went through, Untame the Tiger becomes staggeringly moving and powerful, like on the single "The Guest," which is a song about loneliness and returning to an empty home, as Mary sings “hello loneliness, you’ve come back home. You were the only one who never left me alone. I try and I try to say goodbye, but you insist.”
Untame the Tiger is a universal album, and the title track is the mission statement. Mary Timony sings “thought I was through with you, the tiger was tamed. But now my brain is running hot and I am counting all the rain. Want to go where your animal runs free, I hear it call my name. What do I get from loving you? Just, this song about pain,” which is followed by a beautifully cathartic guitar solo. Untaming the tiger is a way of turning the energy and emotions from a bad situation into a positive one, as putting your head in the sand will just have it bubble up and explode at the wrong moment. Using those sad and negative emotions and putting them into your art, let alone putting them in an incredible uptempo rock song that Timony’s hordes of loyal and adoring fans will sing along to when she goes on tour, as they all relate to untaming the tiger in their own lives, is one of the positive and beautiful things I can think of. For those reasons and more (and I cannot stress enough how much this album has some of the best guitar solos you will hear on an album this year), that is why thirty four years into her career, Untame the Tiger ends up standing as the best and most personal work in Mary Timony’s storied career.
Favourite songs: Untame the Tiger, No Thirds, Looking for the Sun, Not the Only One, The Guest