“Communion Girls” is the first single from the forthcoming album “Southlands” by Northern Ireland indie folk band Malojian, and it’s a little gem.
Northern Ireland in the 1980s was a totally different world from today, and Stevie Scullion, aka Malojian, has taken his inspiration from martial arts films and the troubles to weave a witty tale of a youth daydreaming his way through another long, boring Sunday morning service. The beauty of the song is in the innocent and humorous way it treats a particularly violent situation unfolding within the daydream. Paramilitaries burst into the service, and at this point the daydreamer, inspired by watching grainy videos of Bruce Lee in his famous yellow tracksuit, leaps up and singlehandedly takes out the bad guys; and gets the attention of the pretty girls in the congregation as his reward. In fact, the only hint of the seriousness of the imagined situation in the song is when the grungy guitar solo screams out between the perfect harmonies.
This is Malojian and Stevie Scullion doing what they do best: quirky observational humour backed by a catchy melody and perfect harmonies. Both he and the band have outdone themselves with this witty observational tale of growing up in a small town in Northern Ireland in the 1980s.
