Skinny Girl Diet: Snarling, angry music returns…god bless it

Title: Heavy Flow

Label: Fiasco 

“We knew we needed a name and we wanted something that made people feel a bit disgusted and also summed up society for us. When I was 14, I was on Tumblr and this skinny girl diet came up and I thought it was so grim. If the beauty ideal is to be skinny, then why is a diet telling skinny girls to diet? It’s a bit fucked up.” That was Deliliah talking on The Beat Juice, go HERE for the full interview which is informative and which also put a smile on my face.

You see, the difference for music reviewers is that we really, half the time, haven’t got a clue what to expect. Music fans purchase CDs and vinyl searching for the familiar or the newly discovered. We journalists are often mugged by music.

There’s a time. A moment. It’s the gap from putting the CD onto the tray and the wait for the disc to declare it readiness to ‘go’. And then pressing the Play button. It presages devastating disappointment from the hope found on the sleeve or the press release, total boredom and crushing tedium and the wall of words that have to be written from the outpourings of dross or…or…this.

This outfit, deemed by the press release as ‘feminist punks’ (both the band name and the name of this album sorta give that away a tad) offer both a retro Riot Grrrl punk sound that has elements of Hole infused in and around it. The quality of the album is just breathtaking, though. Shattering noise, insightful lyrics, anger, frustration and other essential ingredients that you need to make great music.

A momentous album. An instant classic. A disc of creative beauty. I’m an instant fan.

Oh and any girl band who can start a typical internet interview with the exclamation, “Fuck the Tories!” has my attention. Politics has got nothing to do with it, I hasten to add. All I want from my musicians is passion for their art. I want them to care. I doesn’t matter if that caring relates to political parties, world peace or how to bake a really good fairy cake. I want them to be moved to make music and really have to bust a gut to tell us all about it. That’s what this album is all about.

Ah, it’s just like the old days. Real songs sung with aggression and a snarl. It brings tear to these ageing eyes.