The Kut: punk-pop swagger sprinkled with homages to new wave, melodic metal and grunge

Chart-topping alt.rock trio The Kut give vintage grunge dynamics a contemporary twist on new album Grit

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The Kut - Grit album cover art
(Image: © Criminal)

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Fresh from topping the official UK rock album chart, The Kut’s second album is a refreshing blast of female-driven punk-pop swagger sprinkled heavily with knowing homages to vintage new wave, melodic metal and grunge. 

Essentially a fluid lineup revolving around Blackpool-born band founder and blue-haired banshee Princess Maha, this ear-bashing trio fully grasp the visceral thrill of caveman riffs, sarcastically anti-romantic lyrics and howling distortion jams, notably on the gnarly Burn Your Bridges. 

All the winking nods to L7 and Hole, Brody Dalle and Joan Jett are fun – indeed, there is even a song here called The Runaways. But Maha is strongest when she transcends her record collection with tracks like the propulsive Brothers, which marries jangly psych-rock guitars with boisterous hip-hop beats, and On My Own, a rollicking sugar-rush of alluringly sloppy girl-group fuzz-pop. 

Never mind all those sweaty-bollocked male rockers, The Kut are gonna party like it’s 1978.

Stephen Dalton
Stephen Dalton

Stephen Dalton has been writing about all things rock for more than 30 years, starting in the late Eighties at the New Musical Express (RIP) when it was still an annoyingly pompous analogue weekly paper printed on dead trees and sold in actual physical shops. For the last decade or so he has been a regular contributor to Classic Rock magazine. He has also written about music and film for Uncut, Vox, Prog, The Quietus, Electronic Sound, Rolling Stone, The Times, The London Evening Standard, Wallpaper, The Film Verdict, Sight and Sound, The Hollywood Reporter and others, including some even more disreputable publications.