The mighty Muff threw out this 13 track LP earlier in July and it is glorious melding of pop-punk, indie thrash and jarring comments on the war of the sexes in 2017. 13 songs in 25 minutes – well, that says it all.
This lot have been tearing up stages in their native Glasgow and beyond for a while now but this is the most fully realised capturing of them on recording. A bit of bio – they comprise Eilidh McMillan, Simone Wilson and Cal Donnelly, all heavily involved in other music projects and groups in Glasgow and beyond.
So there is little foreplay as we get straight into it, with the less than 1 min long ‘Lunch Money’, sounding like Glasgow’s answer to X Ray Spex around 35 years later, but no worse for it.
Track 2 ‘Arms Brains’ starts with some more subtle strumming with a boy/girl attraction lyric, recalling the Pastels maybe, some searing riffs as well.
‘R U a Feminist’ charts an explosive sex war scenario – “you’re not a fucking feminist” – in between some chaotic guitar and drums mayhem… There is also some groovy bass playing among the barbed words – gloriously vindictive…
Track 4 ‘Birthday Party’ has some minor key thrashing, with both boy and girl vocalists begging us to come to this party – although there must be a catch, surely!
‘Feast’ is pretty heavy with some surf guitar riffs battling with Pixies-esque sounds while the vocals struggle to express WTF is going on – what kind of feast are we talking about?
‘Magic Carpet’ and ‘Baby Boomers’ are both pretty riff-heavy – a lot of shouting and massive guitars and drums, claustrophobic sounds.
Track 8 ‘I Like To’ is slower in tempo and supremely filthy – ok so a diet of spotted puddings and cats is not exactly your five a day, guys, but fair play… it’s followed by ‘Clam’, a more mature song with some lovely chord changes and female vocals.
‘Duvet’ is again very strong, melodic and shouty, but with some great harmonies.
So the home run comprises ‘Raspberry Pavlova’ – more riffing, some Pixies tropes and playful lead line – while ‘Stinky Goodbyes’ is a bit Sarah-Records-ish and has a ponderous (for the Muffs) instrumental break midway but is still good for it. And last track ‘Waving Cats’ is just a bit weird – all disjointed guitar thrums for a while until, well, it trails off – shame really, as this is a massively entertaining debut album packing with pleasure.
So overall this album is fresh, chaotic at times, punky in a good way, a bit deranged and dangerous, definitely sexual and sometimes sexy, and just what we need in summer 2017 – BM salutes BM!