Lambrini Girls first caught my attention with their 2023 single Lads Lads Lads, which spurred me into purchasing their impressive “You’re Welcome” EP and to take a trip over to Glasgow’s West End to catch the band live in the Hug and Pint. That was where I experienced the Lambrini Girls tour de force in full effect, playing a no holds barred set and laying waste to the heaving mass of bodies in the tiny and very sweaty basement venue. I would defy anyone to have walked away from that gig without a look of euphoric startled bewilderment on their faces and filled with a feeling of solidarity and righteous empowerment.
The question that lingered, after experiencing the band at full tilt in their natural environment, was can they replicate the sheer energy and unadulterated fury from their live show onto a record? The answer is a resounding yes. As soon as the traps open on Who Let the Dogs Out the Lambrini Girls rip straight into their stride without hesitation raging about police corruption with an unfettered incandescent rage on Bad Apple.
From then on in, there is no let up in that ferocity and unrestrained rage, with Phoebe and Lily taking no prisoners with their frenetic punk rock sound. The acerbic intensity in the delivery of the lyrics is more than match for their electrically charged riffing that sits somewhere in the centre of a Venn diagram made up of the likes of The Hives, IDLES and Amyl and the Sniffers, the venomous spirit in which the songs are delivered grabs you savagely, shaking you from your stupor and shouting “LISTEN TO ME” right in your face.
There is no escape from their ire, once these attack dogs have been loosed from their chains, there is no caging them, and you’d better believe they are on the attack, as they set their sights on their targets and take them down with ease, brutally savaging them in the process… corrupt police are the target on the opening track already mentioned, the patriarchy in the workplace are in for a battering on Company Culture, and gentrification slated on You’re Not From Around Here… as well as these, the Girls tackle hot topics like eating disorders, taking inspiration from Kate Moss’s infamous quote, on Nothing Tastes as Good as It Feels, and a brutal commentary on the patronising treatment of neurodiversity on Special Different. If you are a white cis male and you don’t feel uncomfortable, have some sort of feeling of shame or if you feel defensive listening to Big Dick Energy then you’re part of the problem. “Not all men” will not be tolerated here…
The album ends in the shape of the rollickingly profane Cuntology 101, a list song of sorts where the not one fuck given duo run through a series of behaviours they deem to be “cunty”. April can’t come soon enough to once again experience the Lambrini Girls in full effect once again in Glasgow’s St Luke’s venue.