BE YOUR OWN PET
GET AWKWARD
(XL)
Teen angst gets a sexy electro overhaul.
4/5
The second, more refined album from the Nashville foursome sees erratic garage rock at it’s most blinding and abrasive. Like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on speed, singer Jemina Pearl sweetly snarls (yes a contradiction but it works!) punk vitriol over angular guitars with a series of fast and bewildering songs. From defying growing up in ‘Super Soaked’, to violent high school bitterness in ‘Becky’ and a refreshing rockabilly feel to anti-love song ‘Zombie Graveyard Party’ reminiscent of Zombina And The Skeletones; ‘love is lame so let me eat your brain’. Pearl’s vocals range from sugary sweet to a gravel voiced vixen, flowing deliciously along with the sheer dynamism of the album, briefly finding its softer moments with indignant ‘You’re A Waste’. A collection of raw and frantic pop songs with a punk heart that chronicle growing up in a refreshing and surprisingly mature manner.
Sarah Cakebread
