ALBUM REVIEW: Lambrini Girls – Who Let The Dogs Out (City Slang)
Who Let The Dogs Out is the debut full-length by Brighton’s Lambrini Girls – one of the most talked-about bands to emerge from the UK punk scene in recent years.
Formed in 2019, the duo sing about societal issues, mainly those affecting women, in a manner recalling ’90s riot grrrl groups like Bikini Kill, yet in a style very much their own.
They have spent the last four years building up to this release, with 2023 debut EP You’re Welcome (reviewed here) and last year’s standalone 7in single God’s Country/Body Of Mine.
It’s a very modern punk album, full of anger, but don’t expect traditional verse-chorus, verse-chorus-repeat song structures here – you won’t find many.
Vocalist Phoebe Lunny is Lambrini Girls’ mouthpiece, as well as laying down shards of scuzzy guitar, while Lilly Macieira is the beating heart, with most of the songs based around her basslines.
Things kick off with Bad Apple, a takedown of the police and the way they treat women. Phoebe’s anger is palpable as she spits: “Officer what seems to be the problem/Or can we only know post mortem?” It’s a feisty start, and it is only the start.
Company Culture, the IDLES-like lead single, is a patriarchy-basher, demanding to know why it’s still so difficult for women to get on unless they’re willing to be treated as sexual objects in the workplace. It’s dripping with sarcasm as Phoebe asks: “Harassed in the workplace/My cold resting bitch face/When will I learn/That men just do it better?”
Big Dick Energy has been a live favourite for a few years, with a version included on the debut EP. Now it gets a proper airing, and Phoebe proves the master – or should that be mistress – of the putdowns as she sneers “it’s not that fucking big!”
How to approach someone of the same sex if you don’t know they’re gay is the tricky subject of No Homo, while Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels addresses eating disorders, and opining that skinny celebrities like Kate Moss aren’t necessarily good role models for young women.
Gentrification of communities driving up house prices and rents is the target of You’re Not From Around Here, while contempt for rich kids wanting to be rock stars is the driving force behind Filthy Rich Nepo Baby, powered by fuzzy bass and featuring a caustic vocal which points out: “Money talks, success is bought.”
At times it’s like Phoebe is delivering a manifesto rather than just singing, but there’s a more personal feel to Special, Different, a discordant slice of post-punk which tackles neurodivergence, and she admits “I’m a car crash trainwreck/That nobody can fix.”
Love is Lambrini Girls’ break-up song, where toxicity has been mistaken for love, and things draw to a tumultuous close with Cuntology 101, a list of acceptable social misbehaviours set against a throbbing electro vibe. With its chorus of “C-U-N-T, I’m gonna do what’s best for me, Cunty” it’s possibly the standout track here, in a record full of bangers.
I have no doubt that Who Let the Dogs Out will find its way onto lots of end-of-year ‘best of’ lists, and rightly so. It’s a cracker. 9/10.
