Quickly Quickly Offers Catchy Hooks and Layered Arrangements » PopMatters

Quickly Quickly’s melodies make this a catchy, very listenable record. The oddball sounds and layered arrangements make it a treat to dig into this album repeatedly.

I Heard That Noise Quickly Quickly Ghostly International 18 April 2025

The way the press materials talk about I Heard That Noise, one would expect an album consisting entirely of folk music rudely interrupted by screeching distortion and other harsh sounds. While Quickly Quickly absolutely traffics in the noisier end of music, bandleader Graham Jonson is more interested in melodies and catchy songs. To that end, the noise of I Heard That Noise works more as a musical garnish to spice up his songs rather than a deconstruction of pop music. Jonson is working to draw listeners in, not pull the rug out from under them.

One would be forgiven for thinking the opposite after hearing the opener, “I Heard That Noise”. The record begins with 40 seconds of harsh sounds, scraping and bubbling, before abruptly switching to a pleasant piano ballad. Simple chords accompany a lead melody line played on the piano and doubled by Jonson as he sings. It’s a warm, lovely little song that lasts about 90 seconds before being overtaken by more bubbling sounds and slow, spacey synth chords. As a statement of purpose, “be ready for anything”, it’s striking.

“Enything”, turns out to be much more representative of the record as a whole. A sunny, easygoing electric guitar lead is accompanied by simple rhythm guitar and lightly clicking drums. Jonson sings, a little sleepily, to a love interest in the verses, before switching to falsetto for the chorus. The chorus also features Julia Logue on backing vocals, adding another tone color.

As the song drifts through its four minutes, prominent bass guitar and acoustic guitar also occasionally appear. There is also the noise. At first, it’s just minor squawks here and there, but then odd sounds serve as the track’s bridge. From there on, unusual sounds are present in the background even as the catchy melodies in the vocals and guitar still dominate the track.

It’s an interesting technique, almost as if Jonson doesn’t want to let his melodies just be sweet and lovely. So he dirties them up, which seems a little gratuitous, but it works. He gives his songs a little grit and something unexpected, and it keeps the listener paying attention.

“I Punched Through the Wall” is a prime example. It starts surprisingly gently for a song with that title. Easygoing drums and little synth and xylophone bits join simple, pleasant guitar. The chorus, with a falsetto climax and guitar countermelody, lifts noticeably without changing the mood. When the song hits the bridge, though, it goes into 30 seconds of completely fuzzed-out guitars and crashing cymbals, then snaps right back to the main feel to finish out the song.

Johnson also seems to have an internal debate about how much instrumentation to include in his songs. The track “This Room” is very stripped down. It’s largely Jonson singing gently and playing an acoustic guitar. Eventually, it gets busier near the end, but he keeps it simple for a good three-fourths of the track.

Meanwhile, its immediate predecessor, “This House”, is almost the opposite. Although it starts with just voice and mandolin, Jonson starts adding elements and never stops. There’s an open-sounding electric guitar, then piano, violin, synth chords, percussion effects, clarinets, and even whistling. It sounds like a lot for a 2:30-minute track, but Jonson keeps the focus on his voice and mandolin. He deftly weaves these other sounds in and out of the mix and doesn’t overwhelm what’s essentially a quiet song.

The roots of I Heard That Noise’s original conception as a folk record are evident near the end. “The Raven” is an inviting folk song driven by a warm, shambly acoustic guitar and messy piano and vocals that sound like they were recorded from across the room. Jonson lets distortion creep in near the end, but it’s mostly just simple. 

“Drawn Away” is a beautiful folk ballad with a simple acoustic guitar arpeggio accompanying an aching, melancholy vocal. It also includes maybe the record’s most striking lyric, “I drove through the rain / 14 hours in isolation just to be home again.” Like “This House”, Jonson adds elements as the song goes on, including waves of distortion. Similarly, though, he keeps the primary focus on the guitar and voice, so it still feels like a simple folk song.

“Drawn Away” would be a lovely way to end the album, but Jonson isn’t done. Instead, he finishes with the nearly ten-minute-long “You Are”. As one would expect, a lot is going on in this epic-length track. It begins as a placid love ballad, where Jonson starts every line with “You are”, followed by a different metaphor. After a transition of white noise, the song reemerges with a new melody, first played by piano and then picked up on guitar. Quickly Quickly then spends the next six minutes or so jamming out on this melody.

I Heard That Noise ends up being pretty ingeniously constructed. Quickly Quickly’s melodies grab the listener’s attention at first, making it a catchy and very listenable record. It’s the weirdness and noises that make it highly relistenable, though. There’s enough hidden in the oddball sounds and layered arrangements that make it a treat to dig into again and again.