Before I continue my discussion of Mother, I should say that while I overall do really like the album (especially since it grows on me a little bit more each time that I listen to it), it is by no means my favorite In This Moment album (that honor probably goes to 2014's Black Widow). Albums such as The Dream (2008), Black Widow (2014), and Ritual (2017) are, in my opinion, much stronger albums, and one of the problems that I have with Mother is how it is structured. Immediately following an instrumental opening prior to a song is yet another instrumental interlude that works as an intro to "The In-Between," the album's lead single. (The instrumental interlude - titled "The Red Crusade" - is, in fact, featured in the "The In-Between" music video.) Having an instrumental piece followed by a song followed by yet another instrumental piece sounds strange and out of place, and I vehemently believe that "The In-Between" (along with its intro, of course) should have been placed closer to the end. "The In-Between" is Mother's "Blood" or "Roots" - fueled electronically and featuring seemingly autobiographical lyrics about Brink's upbringing and identity: "My mother said that I was holy; my father said that I would burn." This song is Mother's best example of what I was talking about earlier regarding duality and contradiction. Brink, in the song's strongest part, sings in the bridge close to the end of the song that she is "between hell and heaven," which definitely calls back to the idea of being half god and half devil from Ritual. "The In-Between" was definitely a grower for me because when I first heard it, I by no means hated it but also wasn't really emotionally struck by it. I now love it, however, and absolutely consider it to be one of the strongest highlights on the album. It also makes for a very powerful lead single because of all of the callbacks to older In This Moment hits in the chorus: "I'm gonna bring a little hell. I'm gonna bring a little heaven. You just keep wanting more, with your blood and your whore... It's a beautiful tragedy. You wanna be sick like me?"
Mother then moves into "Legacy," a somewhat soft and airy song that reminds me a bit of their cover of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" from Ritual. Although not really a favorite of mine, I do like the melody of the chorus, especially at the end when Brink sings, "I am and will always be your legacy." According to Genius, Maria Brink wrote the song for her grandfather and veterans in general. Another highlight is the band's cover of Queen's "We Will Rock You," featuring Lzzy Hale of Halestorm and Taylor Momsen of The Pretty Reckless. Interestingly, Maria Brink is credited as a featured artist which doesn't make much sense because she is, of course, the frontwoman of In This Moment. However, I think that it was done to emphasize Maria as part of this trio of women, and not only is 3 an important number in witchcraft, it also pushes the album's theme of female empowerment, especially since the song is about taking control and coming out on top. It is also very likely that the cover is intending to play with the word "rock," making it clear that, despite what some sexist people will tell you, women can and do rock just as hard as men. Heavier and a little more industrial than the original but still keeping most of its DNA intact, it is a memorable cover, and I love how it's being reinterpreted as a feminist anthem. Mother then gives us its title track, another grower for me. The song begins with Maria speaking the following words in prayer: "Mother, forgive us for our sins, for we know not what we do." This is of course a play on a traditional Christian phrase, changing "father" to "mother," once again emphasizing the album's themes of female empowerment and witchcraft (Pagans and witches often worship female gods). The song is melodically powerful, and Brink's raw vocal performance definitely stands out on the album. I do think that she also likely wrote the song with her actual mother in mind, as evidenced in the song's chorus: "...I will stand up for you. There's nothing I won't do. I'll give you my everything; I'll never let you fall." These lyrics seem to be very personal.
"As Above, So Below" is the third single released prior to the album's release and is definitely one of the more energetic songs on the album, backed by industrial production, warped vocals reminding me a great deal of Black Widow, and heavy guitar. Brink's chorus, in which she asserts that "what you reap is what you sow," is pretty catchy and memorable, and this is yet another song carrying on with the themes of duality and witchcraft. The saying "as above, so below" obviously reflects a concept of duality, as it refers to what happens in the sky affecting what happens here on Earth. (This is loosely tied to witchcraft as many witches believe that the stars and especially the moon have an impact on us.) The song is also emphasizing the idea of karma. As previously stated, Brink says in the chorus that "what you reap is what you sow," but she also says that "what you give comes back threefold." As previously mentioned, the number 3 is very important in many practices involving witchcraft, and The Threefold Law is a concept taken right out of Pagan practices such as Wicca - the idea that the energy that we put out into the world eventually comes back at us three times more powerful. In This Moment has been experimenting with more electronically fused sounds for a while now, and several songs on Mother continue that trend, including "Born in Flames." Although not really a favorite of mine, I do like the electronic instrumentation, and I like the message of the song, which brings in several interesting themes such as pain, the classic phoenix rising from the ashes, and empathy. Although I have no way of corroborating this, I believe that Brink may have written the song about and for her son, Davion Brink. It definitely seems to be addressed to a male, since the chorus asks, "...don't you know that you're a king...?" I also strongly believe it to be written about someone related to her because of this line in the second verse: "You know you are me, and you know I am you." The song definitely seems to be about having a strong connection with someone and knowing when they are in pain - perhaps even feeling that pain as well and coming out together stronger than before, and if it is about her son, then that means that she is highlighting her role as a mother, the album's title.
The song title "God Is She" really helps sum up one of the most central themes on the album - female empowerment. As the opening of "Mother" does, the song imagines a female god, and this song also once again calls forth that theme of duality and contradiction. "I am the god and the devil around you," Brink sings in her signature low and raspy register in the first verse. "I am the heaven and the hell you crave." The song is heavy and self-empowering, as the speaker imagines herself becoming all powerful and godlike: "...Watch as I set fire to everything. Watch as I burn down everything, anything... Watch as I turn into God. Watch as She, watch as She turns into me." I really love "Holy Man," a definite highlight on the album for me. The song begins with an introduction featuring organ (one of my favorite instruments) and a pulsating and drilling guitar coming in and out throughout the song. I love the beat of this song, yet another feminist song emphasizing religious themes. The religious themes are, however, likely being used as a metaphor. Brink opens her part with, "Show me a holy man. I need faith to believe again. Show me a worthy man." I strongly believe that the speaker is not literally asking for her faith in Christianity to be restored but for her faith in human decency and maybe even love to be restored, as she wants to be shown that a man could be good to her. It is also possible that the speaker is addressing the violence, hatred, bigotry, and hypocrisy that seems to run rampant among some Christians: "...even the worst kind of sinner is a holy man," she declares at the end of the chorus. This might seem like a contradiction, but as I said, the album is riddled with clever contradictions, and it isn't truly a contradiction because what I believe her to be saying is that holiness is not always goodness, and I have to admit that I absolutely agree because a sad truth is that some of the worst people that I have ever met have been people who identified as Christian. That does not apply to all of the Christians that I have met but definitely a good number of them. People who are hateful, bigoted, and even violent commit heinous acts and often do so in their god's name.
The twelfth track on Mother is the album's second single and by far my favorite song on the album. "Hunting Grounds" is Mother's catchiest and most energetic song, and when it was released as a single, it didn't take any growing on me at all; I instantly loved it and couldn't stop listening to it. The song features vocals from Joe Cotela of DED, and funnily enough, I absolutely adore his vocals on this song but could not get into DED despite my efforts. I am glad that the band decided to bring in a male vocalist on this song because, like Ritual's "Black Wedding," I definitely think that it's meant to be a duet because of its lyrical content. It imagines a cat and mouse game between two players - potentially a supernatural being such as a vampire or werewolf ("I have been sleeping for seven moons, and now, I'm awake") and its prey, or maybe even two supernatural beings at war. The track features electronic production but is also one of the heaviest tracks on Mother; I love it, for example, when chugging guitar first rips into the song - the third line of the first verse. My favorite part of the song, however, is the bridge close to the end of the song when a hauntingly beautiful keyboard melody plays which is then repeated at the end of the song. That is, in fact, my only complaint about the song; I think that it could have been even more powerful if that melody were a little more persistent throughout the track or at least in the opening as well. "Hunting Grounds" is not only my favorite song on Mother but also one of my favorite songs from the band's catalog so far overall. They really outdid themselves on this one! I also love "Lay Me Down," which features a southern influence similar to Ritual's "Oh Lord." It's another one of my favorite songs on the album, featuring a stomping and pulsating beat and an anthemic bridge, in which a chorus repeats, "Lay me down, down, down... you'll never lay me down." The song features one of the most melodically powerful choruses on the album, parts of which admittedly remind me a bit of Simple Plan's "Welcome to My Life" (undoubtedly a coincidence), and it's lyrically about coming out on top of conflict.
As previously stated, I do like Mother, but it also does have its flaws, and another one of those flaws is that I believe it to be too saturated with covers. Already discussed are covers of "Fly Like an Eagle" and "We Will Rock You," and closing the album is a cover of Mazzy Star's "Into Dust." The cover opens with a spoken intro, a reminder of some of the song's overall themes: "God is She, and She is God. I am Her, and you are me. Had to burn to be set free. We were all blind, but now, we see." (These lyrics are references to several of the album's previous tracks such as "God Is She" and "Born in Flames.") Aside from that, however, the cover is very faithful to the original, which is typical of In This Moment. Covers such as "Call Me" (originally by Blondie), "In the Air Tonight," and "We Will Rock You" do very little to change the DNA of the song and stay very faithful to the original songs. "Into Dust," in fact, really only changes the original persistently strumming acoustic guitar into piano (a welcome change, in my opinion, as it gives the song a lighter and dreamier quality to which I really respond well). As explained on Genius, the lyrics of the song seem to be about someone who is struggling with depression, feeling as if they themselves and their interactions with other people are meaningless and immediately fade into nothing. It is a light and dreamy (albeit somewhat depressing) way of closing the album, but as I said, I do believe that the album features too many covers, and "We Will Rock You" is the only one that truly stays loyal to the album's overall theme. As also previously discussed, I don't much care for the way that the album's tracklisting is structured, as I don't like two instrumental interludes being in such close proximity to each other, and I believe that with "The In-Between" being such an anthemic song that sums up many of the album's themes, it should have been placed closer to the end. Mother is a valiant effort but doesn't, in my humble opinion, manage to hit as hard as previous albums such as Black Widow and Ritual do, but, as stated before, it does feature "Hunting Grounds" - one of my favorite In This Moment songs to date, and as also stated before, it grows more on me every time that I listen to it, so perhaps it just has a bit more growing to do.
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