If you feel like you missed out on the Brat Summer hype because Charli xcx didn’t cater for your punk sensibilities, then get ready for Cuntology season, brought to you by Lambrini Girls and their debut album, Who Let The Dogs Out.
A record fuelled by Tesco booze, the Brighton duo unpick all of modern Britain’s shortcomings via the medium of fiery, three-minute punk. While other modern punk bands such as IDLES are buffing away their rougher edges in favour of more abstract lyricism and experimental post-punk, Lambrini Girls take up the mantle as the scene’s new disruptors.
Throughout 11 blistering, rage-fuelled tracks, they rail against everything wrong in the world, starting with police brutality (Bad Apple) and workplace misogyny (Company Culture) before working their way through gentrification and nepotism on You’re Not From Around Here and Filthy Rich Nepotism respectively.
The latter deals with the industry connections that get so many bands Next Big Thing status. It’s a never-ending frustration that infects all corners of the music industry, where hard work comes second place to the right surname. With trademark acidic sarcasm, they sing “If you want success to last / Fetishise the working class from your 5-bed house in Surrey”.
Perhaps the most powerful moment of the album is Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels, titled as a twist on 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels', the infamous, anorexia-inducing mantra popularised by Kate Moss in the late noughties. Here, they contrast the model’s romanticised view of body dysmorphia with the stark realities of thinning hair, brittle bones and missing periods. There’s no room to hide in this song, showing all the true horrors of an eating disorder.
But even after tackling all of the serious issues, there’s still room to have fun. Cuntology 101 defines the new Cunt Girl archetype, seemingly creating a new punk subculture around the recently-reclaimed word. What is cunty, you ask? Anything from respecting others to shagging behind some bins, according to Lambrini Girls. Like their contemporaries Amyl and the Sniffers, Lambrini Girls are unafraid to tackle the most serious issues in their music, without ever losing sight of the boozy, punky sense of humour that makes them shine.
