Lambrini Girls are a duo from Brighton, UK, formed by Phoebe Lunny and Lilly Macieira Boşgelmez; their music is pure energy and angst against all the discriminations, all the violence that permeates our society.

I was hoping to see them on the 1st of March in Ravenna, but due to a sold out (luckily on the one hand, I got sick the same day) I wasn’t able to attend their concert. And well, my social media bubble seems to have enjoyed that concert a lot. Damn.

The Lambrini Girls is one of the more than 80 bands and artists that has turned down their invitation to play at SXSW, due to the sponsorship of the US Army and some military company involved in the Palestine Genocide at the hands of the Israeli military. Therefore the release of their new album was highly anticipated by the public because of their political involvement and their high power live performances.

Who Let the Dogs Out was released January 10, and arrive amid a flourishing British Post-Punk scene with Idles and Yard Act. Some people label them as the female Idles or as the new Riot Girrrl, but these anointments are out of place for a band that has certainly listened to and followed them with interest, but, as they point out themselves: they prefer to be the first Lambrini Girls.

Let’s start to dive in this groovy and catchy record from the Brighton duo. The first song in this record is “Bad Apple”, a fast song with the drums beating like a Drum’n’Bass tune, or more like a fast Breakcore track. The bass presses while the voice is screaming “Officer what seems to be the problem?”. The song is a strong critique against the racial discrimination made by the police, and the entire lyrics of the song are a succession of actions and infamies committed by people who should defend the oppressed: “Officer, what is the problem? / Can we only know post-mortem? / Not just bad apples, it’s a whole rotten tree”.

I think Phoebe Lunny is extremely capable of conveying what she wants to say through her lyrics, and we can see that in “Company Culture”, a perfect description of 99% of all workspaces all around the world, where it is impossible for an hour to pass without a woman being subjected to sexist comments from male colleagues. Difficult when even a department like human resources, who should defend these behaviours, is involved.

Maybe “Big Dick Energy” needs no explanation. If we just listened to the music, this track could be the end of a hypothetical first part, with three fast and aggressive tracks in a Post-Punk style. But no. One of the reasons why I love this album is because everything the Lambrini Girls have to say effects us completely, and of course, I dare you to not move your head while listening to their songs.

Next on the record, we have a little slowdown; maybe I got it wrong (it could easily be) but for me “No Homo” is an anthem for all the people that have had feelings for people of the same sex and rejected them because of the way today’s society sees homosexuals.

The next song on the list is “Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels”, and it’s another great songwriting effort. As said by Phoebe Lunny, this is one of the songs on the album that is based on her personal experiences; it specifically talks about eating disorders and is the story of a person who faces the consequences of a society based on outward appearance: “Kate Moss gives no fucks that my period has stopped / I wish I was skinny, but I’ll never be enough”.

“You’re Not From Around Here” continues in the style of the previous two songs and tells the evolution of our cities. Yeah, because gentrification is a problem that we can see in all the modern cities. The raging but melancholic music is the perfect match to this kind of song.

After a short skit with the voices of Kwame Ture and Angela Davis, the groovy distorted bass riff introduce us to “Filthy Rich Nepo Baby”. Nepotism is another one of the plagues of this society where the son of a rich man could try to satisfy his ambition just with money like “Hugo wants to be a rockstar / You wouldn’t realise at first glance / But he monetises off false art / ‘Cause he hides the fact he’s upper class”.

“Special, Different” starts with a dissonant guitar riff and reveals the atmosphere of the songs. Like the feelings of a neurodivergent person, the song goes up and down, alternating moments of fast dissonance to strange calm: “Why can’t I just fit in? / Why can’t I just sit still? / Don’t tell me to fit in / Don’t tell me to sit still”.

And finally, it’s time for “Love”. Well, not the love that we can imagine, but the end of love and its consequences when it is morbid or unhealthy. Quoting their Bandcamp: “instrumentals that inhale you like a Level 5 tornado and sentiments that make you want to kick the nearest door through”.

Concluding the album, we find a track that, at first glance, might seem out of place, but it’s not: “Cuntology 101” starts with a distorted synth bass that makes this track ideal for a party but also for a pogo. Lambrini Girls tell us what is cunty, but surely both this track and the whole record are cunty.

At this point, it should be obvious how Lambrini Girls use their music to speak about issues that involve us personally and emotionally. Well, they’re really able to tell these things using sarcasm mixed with rage and disgust without being banal. No slogan but well-told stories form a great debut from the Lambrini Girls.

I definitely didn’t expect one of the albums that will probably be among my favourites of the year to come out ten days into 2025. First record bought this year? The limited edition of Who Let the Dogs Out in the “Gay Smurf Dick Blue” version.

And here you find the video for “Cuntology 101”: