With a name like The Dirty Blonde, you expect dirty, gritty, uncensored noise bleeding through the speakers – you wouldn’t be wrong in that assumption, their sound toys with the roots of punk at its best with the release of their self-titled debut album.
Opening ‘Subject.Scientist.Angel’ has a real early 70s vibe, with scratchy guitars and strong chord progressions powering the track, it embraces new sounds and clever lyrics, expressing a softer side to the band’s sound.
Lyrically it is poignant, tackling blind consumerism and a need for materialistic goods and vocally it’s reminiscent of the Velvet Underground during the peak of their career.
‘Red Fish’ is a ferocious track, gnarling at the speakers with its cutthroat vocals, which could easily have come from the likes of Black Flag.
Lead vocalist Danny Gallagher, combines biting punk driven vocals with ones that could be spoken word.
Punk tracks are notoriously short, snappy, chaotic walls of noise- the Dirty Blonde differ, ‘Red Fish’ is diverse, it has lungs which breathe, letting it grow and expand into different musical elements.
Each track explodes with velocity, snarling ravenously ready to devour the listener; The Dirty Blonde’s writing style is strangely unique.
‘Messy Galavanter’ begins with soft, whispered vocals lacing the track with a retro vibe before descending into crunching riffs and rapid drumming.
Pinning the Dirty Blonde to a set genre is a difficult task, as each track is a stand-alone wonder, they embrace various styles and innovative production to piece together the best sounds from each musical decade.
‘Oh Pear (Fuck Everything)’ is two minutes of pure X-rated punk, brutally shouting about an exhaustion towards life before evolving into a solo driven rock track.
Slick guitar riffs become the bones of the track, pushing it in an experimental rock direction.
Lyrical honesty is defining in a track, ‘Only the Freaks are Free’ embodies just that, this is the stand out track with a brutal story of a lack of recognition.
The Dirty Blonde’s debit has proven they can excel at creating speaker-blowing noise, but they are also skilled musicians.
Words: Kimi Inglis
