“True love is nothing more, than the wrong hill to die on”
There was a club night in Brighton I used to frequent at The Gloucester (now the North Laine Brewhouse). It was a Tuesday night indie/punk/ alternative night. The walls were stained yellow with cigarette smoke, your converse would stick to the floors, a pint was £3.10 and the cloakroom was free. What a time to be alive.
And in the days before Prosecco became normalised and more reasonably priced even for the average student, a bottle of Lambrini on the bus ride in was a perfect entry level drink to share around with your friends while you smudged your eyeliner and tightened your skinny tie.
Why am I revelling in this specific piece of nostalgia? With the arrival of Brighton’s Lambrini Girls debut album “Who Let The Dogs Out” On City Slang Records, I am in some ways transported back to those heady and indulgent night outs.
The record is so much more than a messy night out however. The absolute chaos of this dirty grunge discordant post punk with gale force breakbeat drums and distorted bass is matched by fearless, ferocious and fun sentiment from lead singer, Phoebe Lunny.
Both Lunny and band mate Lilly Macieira are tapping us on the shoulder at the Gloucester, grabbing us by the collar and shoving us out into the street for a frank and open conversations about the state of Britain (Bad Apple), toxic lad culture (Big Dick Energy) your immense amount of privilege (Filthy Rich Nepo Baby), Gentrification (You’re Not From Around Here) and the art of prioritising and looking after yourself amidst the absolute bullshit that surrounds you (Special, Different).
There are tender and sentimental moments here on stand out tracks like No Homo and Love, but be under no illusion that this is loud, full of outrage and pointing and raising fingers at society ills with such speed and power all making Lambrini Girls very hard to ignore.
2024 was a powerful year for scathing and personable social commentary from the likes of Amyl and the Sniffers, Bob Vylan, Kneecap and Fat Dog and Lambrini Girls have jet packed this energy into 2025 already.
This is a shook up bottle of fizzy sticky pear drink filled with fireworks ready to explode in your face and provides a much needed raise to the grey malaise of January.
