Day 76: Lambrini Girls - Who Let The Dogs Out
Lambrini Girls is another mystery entry on my phone list of bands and artists. I couldn’t remember how I heard of them or what I knew about them, so I went in pretty much blind to listening to them. I took a long time to choose what I wanted to listen to today, I’ve found that sometimes it’s best not to overthink it and pick something at random.
Album cover courtesy of City Slang
Released in January this year, Who Let The Dogs out is the debut LP of the British punk duo consisting of Phoebe Lunny and Selin Macieira-Boşgelmez. Their debut album is a cutting and angry little snapshot into life in the UK today. The lyrics are often funny despite being cutting and not holding any punches when it comes to things like police brutality or workplace sexual harassment. But it’s not a dark album by any means, despite the darkness of some of the material, it’s very tongue in cheek.
And for my non-UK readership, the band was named after Lambrini, a cheap alcoholic faux-wine drink that’s probably not really aimed at 14-year-olds but is exclusively drank (drunk?) by them. Or, as described by the duo themselves, it’s “toilet wine for sluts”.
I’m loving that there are many mainstream punk bands now that are fronted by women. I’m also loving that there are punk bands these days who aren’t afraid to get into a bit of trouble. The Lambrini Girls make very explicitly political music, and they seem to be pissing off all the right people. Reddit music bros hate them for being too brash, and right-wingers these days seem to think that musicians should only espouse views that align with the government, or else they must be censored, deservingly so.
Personally I view “punk musician says something controversial” as a category of newspaper article of the “fork found in kitchen”-variety, so I don’t understand who has the time to get offended about things like that. But if a band or an artist is so abrasive that people have the energy to get angry about them, that’s almost always good sign. At some stage, we all just collectively forgot that people’s artistic output can and should challenge you sometimes.
It’s a good record. I think I’d enjoy it significantly more if I was still an angry young woman, I’m feeling a bit too mentally stable to really get the full experience out of this one, but it’s still a good listen. Lyrically, it’s both funny and cutting, they’re a sharp group in every sense of the word. Nothing about the album is particularly lifechanging for me, but I enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll be putting out next. 7.5/10.