EXTENDED PLAY 078: TEENAGE DADS | MAJORDOMO | ALBUM REVIEW

Words by Molly Inglis.

Teenage Dads’ sophomore album, MAJORDOMO, is a collection of synth-heavy tracks mixed with witty indie pop sounds sure to take you back into the 80’s.

Since taking home the 2023 Breakthrough Artist Of The Year Award at the Arias, the four-piece out of the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, haven't slowed down, touring across the US, Europe and Canada.

Now what in the hell is a MAJORDOMO you may ask. Well, I sure was wondering this as well. A MAJORDOMO is described as a person whose job surrounds planning or to take charge for another. 

Taking the term, Teenage Dads has explored throughout the album how sometimes you can be the MAJORDOMO seizing the day, or sometimes events are simply not in your control. 

Boarding Pass is the opening track on the album that gives us just a snippet of the quirky vocals and punchy drum beats featured across the record. The track is from the perspective of someone on a flight plummeting to earth, surrounded by the notion of the inevitability of death and coming to terms with it. 

Since their respective releases as singles, Speedracer and I Like It are two of the catchiest tunes I've heard in a while. With Speedracer’s repetitive lyric structure, I find myself at times singing “you’re my, you’re my speedracer” out loud without even realising it.  I also can vouch for the catchiness of I Like it, with it being my most listened to track on Spotify last year. 

With vocals scattered across the track that remind me of a Dalek from Dr Who, Spiders is a striking track with its creative lyrics surrounding childhood fears and confronting them in adulthood. The track, Moon, pays tribute to Teenage Dad’s earlier works sonically, inciting a feeling of nostalgia to their earlier works Club Echo and Potpourri Lake. 

The fast, gritty pace of a track you can't help but bop along is all manifested in the song, Weaponz - a track on finding personal empowerment through creative expression and how sometimes you just need to take a bullet to see your visions come to life. The use of the snare drum throughout the track acts as the sound of a machine gun and considering the track's name is such a fitting use conceptually. 

Live Until You Die sounds as if you are in the middle of a video game, with an alien-sounding guitar, while Boyfriend leans into a more classic, indie-rock sound with its music video directed by the bands very own Vincent Kinna. 

The Commander and Tale of a Man are rich in their musical storytelling; one painting the picture of a strict commander making noise and being in control, the other about adventurous relationships and how even in moments of separation, you are still invested in your future. 

Concluding the album with a track that can only be described as a rock sea shanty, Day in the Life of a No Good Pirate, is a track through the eyes of a Pirate Captain who faces a love for treasure and faces off with the dreaded Kraken, drawing back to the albums’ themes of seizing the day. 

MAJORDOMO is an album that, reminds me of classic dad music (pun intended); the type you can't help but have a good old boogie too.