Martha And The Muffins – Metro Music (1980)

Canadian Martha Johnson might not have been as influential or groundbreaking as contemporaries like Annie Lennox, Debbie Harry, or Chrissie Hynde, yet she holds a place just as dear in my heart. And that’s because the brand of new wave she delivered with her cohorts — most notably guitarist and songwriter Mark Gane — as Martha And The Muffins was genuinely distinctive.

Their sound was very rhythmic, often bass-driven, and enriched by instruments that felt slightly off the expected new wave formula: saxophone, trombone, organ. Elements that, theoretically, shouldn’t have worked so seamlessly in such a context, yet somehow did. The result was music that felt tight and danceable without being too slick, and clever without turning overly artsy. And yes, it was also catchy as hell. Just give ‘Echo Beach’, their most popular single, a listen if you’re not already familiar: you’ll be humming along and tapping your feet well before the song reaches its final chorus.

However, once you move past the obvious entry point and dig into their debut LP ‘Metro Music’, released in 1980 by Dindisc, it becomes clear that there’s more depth beneath the surface. Tracks like the brooding ‘Sinking Land’ or the epic ‘Revenge (Against The World)’ reveal enough songwriting variety to keep things engaging, and that’s probably why the album still works so well today, earning its status as a slightly forgotten new wave classic rather than the product of a one-hit wonder.

And one-hit wonders they weren’t: Martha And The Muffins didn’t stop there and maintained a certain following, at least in their native Canada, with their influence extending to a new generation of indie bands (The Organ quickly comes to my mind). Personally, I’ve always had a soft spot for their third effort, 1981’s ‘This Is The Ice Age’, also remarkable as one of the very first production credits for the now legendary Daniel Lanois. By then, his sister Jocelyn had joined the band on bass. It wasn’t the only line-up shift: interestingly, there was a second Martha in the fold, keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Martha Ladley, who left before the third album and moved to England, where she played with The Associates for a while.

The only real problem, at this point, is that writing about them makes me crave an actual muffin. Perhaps they should have gone with a less yummy band name.