Storming forward from 2025’s starting blocks, and kicking out gleefully at anything that moves, Brighton-based Lambrini Girls have exactly the album to throw you forward into the new year with your fists swinging in Who Let The Dogs Out – out Friday via City Slang.
Following their critically-acclaimed EP, ‘You’re Welcome’, which contained messages of anti-transphobia (‘Terf Wars’) and highlighted the problem of sexual assault within the music industry (‘Boys in the Band’), Phoebe Lunny (vocals/guitar) and Lilly Macieira (bass) are refusing to pull any punches on their highly-anticipated debut.
Throughout the 11-track album, Lambrini Girls’ uplifting-yet-sneering lyrics wound around playful, powerful hooks will have you on your feet for the sake of both fun and fury. Their sardonic mirror is held unabashedly up towards ‘little Englanders’, our duplicitous politicians and an increasingly cruel and insular society who would happily punch downwards than look out for each other.
Relatable messages about shared queer and girlhood ordeals can be found on ‘Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels’, with the media’s exploitation of body ideals summed up, ‘Kate Moss gives no fucks that my period has stopped, I wish I was skinny but I’ll never be enough.’ More lighthearted mutual experiences abound on ‘No Homo’, a song that will resonate with many in understanding the storm of emotions as a reluctant queer when meeting your first crush.
‘Cuntology 101’, is the perfect affirmation song for those in need of a self-confidence reminder as we enter a new year. Make it your resolution to remember its message, ‘C-U-N-T, I’m gonna do what’s best for me. Cunty.’ ‘Special, Different’ has classic grunge elements of Hole’s early album ‘Pretty on the Inside’ or Babes in Toyland’s ‘Nemesisters’. A moment of pride in self-reflection amongst an ongoing stream of criticism, ‘Don’t tell me to calm down, I was born to stand out.’
And it’s here during these moments we really see the purpose of these tracks. On the surface, they are snarling, bracing anthems about the world’s horrors but each is a Pandora’s box. Although the lid is off and we are destined to spend another year surrounded by the patriarchy, a police force who are only there to protect the upper-class, gentrification, the glass-ceiling and unabashed nepotism (all presented with a biting sense of humour), at the end of it all, there is still hope.
At every Lambrini Girls show there is the unmistakable sense of camaraderie between the band and the audience, which is only heightened by the shared anger that permeates every song and interaction. This is a band who will always lead the charge in standing up for what’s right. Kicking against the pricks never sounded so good.
Who Let The Dogs Out is out Friday via City Slang
Lambrini Girls tour the UK this April. Ticket onsale here
Review: @flirt.cobain
