ALBUM REVIEW: Petrol Girls – Baby (Hassle Records)
Petrol Girls were formed in London 10 years ago and have become one of the loudest and most important voices in the feminist punk world.
Fronted by vocalist Ren Aldridge, rage and indignation are their calling cards, and that’s never been the case more so than here.
If you thought 2016’s debut album Talk Of Violence and 2019’s follow-up Cut & Stitch were angry, wait until you wrap your ears round this one.
Petrol Girls are known for a fast-paced punk sound which veers into hardcore and post-hardcore territory at times, but they insist this album is less ‘preachy’ than its predecessors.
Ren, Joe York (guitar) and Zock Astpai (drums) are joined by new bassist Robin Gatt and they have made an album full of twists and turns. It’s replete with repetition, time signature changes, corruscating riffs and clattering drums.
Baby opens with 28 seconds of noise (made from a mash of sounds on the record) before launching into Preachers, an angular blast of post-punk guitars and off-kilter rhythms which takes a swipe at social media’s call-out culture.
The lead single the pro-choice Baby, I Had An Abortion really grabs your attention, based around an in-your-face tribal drumbeat and brimming over with fury and indignation as Ren screams “And I’m not sorry”. It’s possibly their finest moment to date.
Another highlight is Fight For Our Lives, featuring former Dream Nails singer Janey Starling, who works for the feminist organisation Level Up.
A rant about the male patriarchy, it’s full of changes of pace and direction and ends in a repeated gang chorus of “You don’t own us”. Consider the message well and truly delivered.
The same is true of Violent By Design, another spleen-venting three minutes whose message about police brutality is just as unequivocal: “ACAB/They don’t protect me.”
As things wind towards a conclusion, Sick & Tired shows a more vulnerable side, as Ren sings “I’m sick of the focus on what we do/Not why we’re fucking doing it”, while closer Bones is the most introspective song here.
All told, this is an album which deserves to be heard if you care about your fellow human beings, whatever they gender, and how they are treated by society. 8/10.
