Album Review: The Linda Lindas - "Growing Up"

 

Epitaph records have certainly been a label who've been branching out a bit of late. Hot on the heels of the uncompromising fury of the Muslims come the similarly lo-fi Linda Lindas, four teenage girls from Los Angeles who first came to our attention via the Oh! single last year. Like an American version of Dream Nails or Idestroy, it was a spiky slice of pop-punk with a defiant message underneath its sugary surface.

And it's a good indicator of this album - like X-Ray Spex jamming with 1977 era Ash, all tales of not wanting to grow up (the title track), self-doubt (Talking To Myself which includes an enjoyable fuzzed up wah-wah guitar solo) and pet cats (Nino). There's plenty of snotty teen-punk attitude on show too on the likes of Fine, Why and especially the righteously furious closer Racist Sexist Boy which shows their aggression nicely although at the other end of the scale Remember and Magic show a more reflective side to their sound and Cuantas Veces even goes into jazzed up lounge rock and manages to get away with it which is no mean feat!

Quite simply, this album is fun - the Linda Lindas liberally borrow from a number of great bands (you can hear echoes of the Ramones, the Breeders, the B-52's, Shampoo and the Donnas all in there somewhere) but mix them together to come up with something which has the band's own stamp firmly planted on it. If you need something to cheer you up after a rubbish day at work then Growing Up should do the job nicely.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

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