Mary Timony Returns With Force on Untame the Tiger

Mary Timony needs no introduction. For north of 30 years, the D.C.-originating guitarist has wielded her guitar to push “indie rock”—and all its peculiar permutations—to new heights. With Autoclave and Helium, it’s abundantly clear that Timony’s creative edge plays a major role in how these now-defunct projects remain prominent in cultural memory; and in her 2000s solo work, the world got a glimpse at her on her own terms, and we acquainted ourselves with Mary Timony the budding singer-songwriter and Mary Timony the expert shredder.

Wild Flag cemented the existing relationship between Timony and legends like Carrie Brownstein, Janet Weiss and Rebecca Cole, reinforcing each member’s position in the indie rock canon beyond their membership in influential bands like Sleater-Kinney and the Minders. Most recently, Ex Hex’s two brilliant garage albums have brought out some of Timony’s catchiest arrangements and guitarwork. For 2024, she returns with her first solo album in nearly two decades, Untame the Tiger, a rock tapestry forged in the fires of struggle and reprojecting Timony’s power in this next stage of her life and career.

The Mary Timony of Untame the Tiger has a lot of work to do. Her long-term relationship has come to a close and both of her parents are ailing. On one level, there’s the physical labor of untangling yourself from a former lover and performing care for two sick elders, but the more complicated work is emotional. You can hear Timony unpack her uncertain-yet-expansive future on “No Thirds”—a six-minute opening statement where she shares both her current circumstances and her knack for writing catchy yet intricate riffs. Timony’s school of indie rock does a lot of showing and telling between conversational lyrics and precision guitar melodies. Untame the Tiger has plenty of that, between shredding the electric guitar on “Summer” or closely held acoustic strumming on “Dominoes.” The latter is a particularly funny song about picking the wrong romantic partner that suits Timony’s unadorned voice really well; she sounds comfortable, and each additive component is well-placed.

“Looking For The Sun” begins in ceremonial gravitas, feeling not unlike a heavy vestment, but the song blooms into a psychedelic jam session somewhere between California Psychedelia and Ratatat. “The Guest” reckons with loneliness as a frequent houseguest and, with its comparatively minimal guitars, Timony’s resignation is heartbreaking: “In the end, Loneliness, I guess you’ve been a friend.” Follow-up “Don’t Disappear” moves with a post-punk swagger but, as she calls forth, trying to save her counterpart from the void, her desperation peaks out behind the cool factor. It is a familiar, complicated space to inhabit.

The closing sentiment on “The Dream” sounds like a fitting end to the album, with Timony repeating “I don’t wanna undream the dream” until she fades into the cacophony of her band, which itself slips into oblivion—but it’s not the end. She quickly segues into the title track’s thorny guitar abstraction with heightened tension, animating the fury she finds bubbling up again and again until she confronts her terminated relationship. “Untame the Tiger” is a state of being she can’t help but exist in, and it’s one she has an interest in harnessing; it’s this pain from which she mines her songs and recollects her confidence. After such tumult, Timony lets her animal spirits run free as master of her own domain.

Untame the Tiger is many things: a diaristic exercise, a return-to-form from Ex Hex’s bedazzled garage rock, a meeting of the minds thanks to the backing of Timony’s longtime hero, Fairport Convention drummer Dave Mattacks. Somewhere between Timony’s signature deadpan and the intimacy of her subjects is the sweet spot between distance and proximity, one where the listener can revel in the privilege of accompanying a true legend at an inflection point in her life without feeling like you’re not supposed to be there. Nothing is too straightforward: Whether it’s Timony’s perplexing lyrical delivery, unconventional rhythms or some instrumental surprises, every song on Untame the Tiger induces some head-scratching, more often to its benefit than not. The guitar hero of a long indie renaissance still has more to say and more riffs to play, and for that, we can’t help but celebrate.

Devon Chodzin is a critic and urban planner with bylines at Aquarium Drunkard, Bandcamp Daily, Slumber Mag and more. He is currently a student in Philadelphia. He lives on Twitter @bigugly.