Trapped Animal. Availability: C.D., L.P. and Digital. Time, 30:55.
Oh god I love this record. Hang on, though, that’s not how you’re supposed to start a review is it? That bit’s supposed to come at the end. But tough luck, I do, so why not say so right off the bat?
Hera Says is a feminist music website and ‘Chaos’ is gloriously high-energy, feminist Punk. But it’s more than that. Three piece, Kerry Devine (vocals & guitar), Katie Shore (bass & keys) and Amy Divine (drums & keys) are not preachy. Instead they make powerful music that’s also great fun, with lyrics with a strong strain of wit. There’s a definite difference between funny and witty. Don’t ask me to define it, but it’s there and this is certainly the latter; it’s a joy.
It’s a shame there’s no lyric sheet included with the C.D., because it’s hard to make out some of the words as sung. But enough of them are clear to get both the idea and that tongue-in-cheek mischief. How many bands, for example, would title a song against body shaming ‘My Labia’s Lopsided, but I don’t Mind’ ? Or criticise porn, as in opening track ‘Yawn Porn’, not with moral outrage at its very existence, but for its boring predictability?
The cult of youth is mocked, along (to a degree) with the singer herself, because of the pleasure she feels at being though younger than she is in ‘ID’d at Aldi’.
And this is not a band afraid to voice ideas and language others might avoid: with unselfconscious references to Labia, facial cum shots or female masturbation in ‘Vibrator’. And they’re not just gratuitous. They make you think. Why should such things be so taboo, after all? The thoughts are almost philosophy, although unlikely to win hearts and minds amongst the would-be ‘moral guardians’ who determine radio station play-lists.
Elsewhere, ‘Invisible Woman’ satirises the way women are all too often written out as if a virtual irrelevance. ‘Nipple Hair’ again rails against body shaming and the way women are made to feel compelled to alter the look of the body nature gave them because of purely arbitrary social pressures. We may not go for female circumcision in the West, but whose idea was it that women shouldn’t have body hair, when it’s often seen as a plus in men. It’s a form of infantalisation – of disguising the female body’s normal adult development.
Meanwhile, ‘Mild Misogynist’ talks about misogyny in general and false male allies in particular. And we’ve all met men who claim to be feminists but still expect to be in charge, make sexist remarks, apparently without even noticing, or take a proprietorial attitude even to women they don’t know.
The album closes with ‘It’s Not About the Money Honey’, a demand for equality in the form of an almost 5 minute crescendo, which adds still further to its impact by gradually accelerating in tempo. It’s an original trick I don’t recall hearing before.
The album is reputed to have been recorded in a single day. I don’t know if that’s true, but whether it is or not, it has much of the immediacy and excitement of a live performance. There’s a driving power behind it, with overdriven guitars, thunderous drums behind sometimes screamed vocals, on occasion with harmonies around them.
In fairness, it’s a rather short record which would have benefitted from one more song to make a nice round ten, but it’s glorious. And it never gets samey. For the most part the songs are short, fast and furious, but there’s enough variety to keep things interesting throughout. I’ve already mentioned the clever arrangement of the final song, but the title track, ‘Chaos’ takes a longer, more complex approach, yet even so, the same enthusiasm (and some wonderful bass playing) still roars through.
Oh, and take a look at the cover art. It shows a strange mix of retro and modern. It even has the word “Stereo” printed in capitals above the band picture on the front, as if that needed saying these days. It’s more like something from a cover from 1964 than 2024. It’s just one more little touch of irony. You almost expect sleeve notes by Tony Barrow on the back. And if you don’t know who he is, look at the back of almost any early Beatles album.
Which rather brings us full circle, and I say again: oh god I love this album. This is the debut full-length of a band which has existed for a decade, so it’s been a long time coming. I just hope the next one will arrive a bit quicker, because this one is brilliant.
Hera Says.
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Hera says I should be the star now 