Album Review: Idestroy - "We Are Girls"

 

Regulars on the Camden indie/scuzz-punk circuit for the last few years, Idestroy have been slowly building their profile in recent years and this debut album definitely comes with a bit of expectation attached to it. And I'm happy to say it delivers - hand on heart, I'd heard a couple of the band's songs prior to this and they hadn't really grabbed me but this is a good debut album which is definitely worth a listen.

Similar to Dream Nails, who they share a righteously angry DIY aesthetic with, Idestroy take the fury of early '90s riotgrrl but they remember to add some tunes and hooks to the formula which, truth be told, was the downfall of a lot of the band from the original scene 25 years ago. While the furious Petting Zoo is a warning against groping perverts and the ode to post-one night stand self-loathing of Swim is the sort of thing Hole would've done before they signed to a major and smoothed their sound out, there's also a sly sense of humour at work here on songs like Lemons and Cheap Monday which stops this getting too po-faced for its own good while The Young And Wasted sounds like a 21st century riotgrrl anthem in waiting. At the same time, you can't really disagree with the sentiments behind a lot of the angrier stuff on songs like the title track especially in an era where people in power seem all too keen to belittle and trivialise movements like MeToo and Black Lives Matter and we're stuck with a government led by a man whose sense of morality is, shall we say, somewhat loose.

It'd be all too easy to praise this album just because of the worthiness of the sentiment behind it but the key is that Idestroy are a dab hand with a memorable tune and hook and it's this which marks them out as a standout band. Imagine the point where the anger of Huggy Bear meets the tunefulness of the Ramones and you wouldn't be far off. And yes, I know that's high praise indeed but believe the hype, it's justified in this instance.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)