The Lambrini Girls – Who Let The Dogs Out Punk77 Review 24.12.2024
Punk77 – It’s been a crazy year for the Brighton based duo Phoebe Lunny (vocals/guitar) and Lilly Macieira (bass). Incendiary live sets and a growing fanbase saw them finishing up the year touring the States as support for The Idols.
And while doing all that, the Fender Jaguar wielding duo managed to record at rapid speed the depth charge that is Bring Out The Dogs due first week January 2025.
Written in two short bursts in rural Oxford against the clock, this full-length debut is a raw distillation of Lambrini Girls’ anger, energy, and charisma. Says the PR
Despite being a high pressure situation, the combination of Dutch courage and a ticking clock helped play into their strengths. The end result is raw, instinctive, and straight from the gut. “Because we had such little time, I had this switch in my brain that just went ‘I’ve just got to let these songs be what they want to be’,”
Lilly explains. “In the first session it was very much like, ‘no, this has to be really thought out,’ but by the second I was like, ‘I’ve got to let go a little bit, see what comes out and just see it through.’ Trust the process kind of thing. That was a really big part of writing this album. It’s also a big part of why the energy is similar to our live shows, because it’s just how we are.”
It’s full of angst against the police, men, relationships, love, eating disorders, and how women are perceived in work but with a heavy dollop of humour, all be it black, because the trouble is the issues are still there.
The first track Bad Apple sets out their stall with a take down of the police and its failings with lyrics worthy of Crass. It’s so heavy it has a Prodigy like cadence and feel, that verges on dance/drum and bass.
Hang the pigs
That hunt your daughters
Stop and search
Lambs to the slaughter
Heavy arms direct commands
Protect and serve
Point and shoot
And THAT bass from Lilly! – at times it’s so dirty and so heavy it’s like a dirty pleasure but it underpins everything and allows Phoebe’s guitar to wander and her vocals to let rip.
I’m assuming the lyrics are included in the release as they are part of the PR pack and they are key to understanding the message of the songs. Take a song like Company Culture about women in the workplace.
Blondes have more fun
In company culture
Pretend that I know how to use a computer
Harassed in the workplace
My cold resting bitch face
When will I learn
That men just do it better
(Michael, I don’t want to suck you off on my lunch break)
They aren’t scared of using FX either. The lead-off track Love (a love song done the Lambrini Girls way of course) starts off like a jet taking off and out bombasts Killing Joke but has a delicate 2 note almost Buzzcocks guitar line counterpointing it and a fine change of pace mid-song. For me, my favourite track off the album and highlights all the strengths of the band.
Other tracks like No Homo or Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels are more direct punk riffing straight to the gut. They’re confrontational and direct and the put-down song Big Dick Energy says it all in the title about their feelings about a certain type of threatening male machismo. The final track Cunty, written last minute in the studio and won’t be played on the radio anytime soon, is a humourous list you can check off yourself and see how you rate!
In short the album hits the sweet spots, explodes like the cork out of a shaken prosecco bottle and is an assured debut full of sonic punk variety, angst and humour. 2025 will be another step forward year for the band as they will undoubtedly have a strong live presence to support the new album and gain more followers.
“True love is nothing more Than the wrong hill to die on
Trauma bonding over exes, with the best of intentions
Put me on a pedestal! So you can rip me off”
Below is the PR ‘Super Short’ which pretty much says it all…
Who Let The Dogs Out is the debut album from Brighton based noise-punk duo Lambrini Girls. Released January 10 2025 and recorded with Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox with mixing by Seth Manchester (Mdou Moctar / Battles / Model/Actriz), Who Let The Dogs Out bottles everything wrong with the modern world and shakes it up. If peppering political songs with humour is like sticking a sparkler in some bread, then Who Let The Dogs Out is like a fireworks display in the factory itself: strange, dangerous, exciting.
The album rips through a laundry list of social ills. Sirens blare over a heavy distorted bass and a live drum breakbeat. The band dance between upbeat pop punk, dirty grunge tones and discordant post-punk. There’s even some noise-pop cheer for putting yourself first, whether it’s having an autistic meltdown or doing a poo at your mate’s house.
With instrumentals that inhale you like a Level 5 tornado and sentiments that make you want to kick the nearest door through, it’s a take-no-prisoners debut from one of the UK’s most fun and fearless bands.
Can’t argue with that! Big Chick Energy!
The Lambrini Girls info – Website | Instagram | Facebook
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