SKINNY GIRL DIET

Pining for the days of grunge, Riot Grrrl or when Savages thrilled rather than delighted? Craving for worthwhile successors to the likes of Hole and L7?

You could do worse than cop liberal earfuls of London’s spiky punk sisters Skinny Girl Diet whose sources of inspiration on their long-awaited debut-album possibly (and probably) cover a pre-defined selection of raw alternative bands of yore.

Gish-era Smashing Pumpkins on the riffier tracks (Lazy Eye), Throwing Muses (Okay), The Stooges (Eyes That Paralyse) - you name it, the threesome pay homage, though thankfully not parody, to some of the biggest names in intelligent and rebellious rock ’n’ roll this side of Woodstock.

Singer Delilah Holliday bawls like Courtney Love, flips the bird like Viv Albertine and growls in a similar vein to Marianne Faithful as sister Ursula bashes eighty-five shades of shit out of her drum-kit - try the ear-bleeding Bored or Wolf Pack for proof - while just occasionally, as with Okay, the band switch to mellow (of sorts). And just as Wasted Smile starts to sound like a trippy psychedelic folk experiment, in comes another runaway train of riffs and hollers.

The vocals are socially-awake, guttural, vitriolic and spat out like unwanted pubes, the music leaves your cochlea sore with blisters and the overall effect of hitting this album full-on in one sitting is a bit like having your earlobes cleaned out with a riot van. Or suffering, as the sleeve may suggest, the worst period of your life but still getting on with the task in hand.

All of which makes this rough around the edges, fuck-you-we-are-feminine-and-proud album a ferocious, precocious and compelling firebrand. This is a band you just have to see live, I’d wager.

This review also appeared on Flipside Reviews

Paul PLEDGER
11/12/2016