ALBUM REVIEW: M(h)aol – Attachment Styles (TULLE Collective/Rough Trade Publishing)
M(h)aol (pronounced ‘male’) are a five-piece feminist post-punk band whose members are split between the UK and Ireland.
They’ve been going since about 2015, and have released a handful of digital-only singles, plus their physical debut, the 12in vinyl EP Gender Studies, in 2021.
The band are based between Dublin, Cork, Belfast, London, and Bristol, which might explain why it’s taken them so long to release an album.
M(h)aol are Róisín Nic Ghearailt, Constance Keane, Jamie Hyland, Zoë Greenway, and Sean Nolan, and Attachment Styles is a record about social connection, sexuality, queerness and healing.
The listener is invited on a journey, and it’s abrasive, raw, repetitive and, in places, downright fucking furious.
Searching for comparisons, they fall somewhere between the late ’70s post-punk of The Slits and the more modern stylings of feminist bands such as Petrol Girls and Witch Fever.
Their name comes from an old folk song about Grainne Mhaol, the pirate queen Grace O’ Malley, who was a popular figure in 16th century Ireland.
The album begins with the brooding Asking For It, a song about rape culture which was released as a single in 2021, and it’s powerful stuff.
“I’ve heard what they say/About girls like me/I’m just the dumb bitch/That left the party with you/Was I asking for it?/Did I ask for it?/NO!“
M(h)aol deal head-on with issues like misogny, male violence against women, and at times it’s an uncomfortable listen – exactly what’s intended.
Take the latest single Period Sex, a no-holds-barred portrayal of female desire, which isn’t going to get airplay any time soon.
It’s another example of the band reclaiming their sexuality on behalf of women everywhere as vocalist Róisín purrs: “I know we’ve been told it’s nasty and disgusting/But with my hormones this high I’m feeling quite lusty.“
Bored Of Men is about the patriarchy, and how women don’t feel safe at night. “Who’s that guy, who’s right behind me/Is it a friend, or an enemy, I Just can’t see.”
No One Ever Talks To Us addresses unwanted male attraction, complaining “No one ever talks to us, unless they want to fuck,” while Bisexual Anxiety is about not fitting in to people’s stereotypes and expectations, before concluding: “I’d love to be anything other than what I am.”
Toxic relationships are the subject of Therapy, and Nice Guys is about female fulfillment. At times M(h)aol’s music mesmeric and at others it’s an atonal post-punk clatter, but it certainly gets the message across.
There’s a couple of mis-steps here, but all in all this is a very worthwhile album, and one which is fully deserving of your attention. 7.5/10.
