Lambrini Girls - Who Let The Dogs Out Review
Who Let The Dogs Out is a socially astute garage-punk masterclass - and anyone who doesn’t agree is cunty.
A few things I learned whilst listening to Lambrini Girls’ Who Let The Dogs Out:
Michael isn’t getting a blowjob on his lunch break.
Doing a poo at your friend’s house is cunty.
“No-homo” and “slo-mo” is my new favourite rhyming couplet.
This album is not to be confused with the Baha Men hit single of the same name.
Lambrini Girls are very funny and very pissed off.
Brighton-based Lambrini Girls are singer/guitarist Phoebe Lunny and bassist Lilly Macieira. Known for their no-holds-barred opinions, tub-thumping vocals, and riotous live shows, their debut album - Who Let The Dogs Out had a lot to live up to, and thankfully it delivers.
With the production expertise of Gilla Band bassist Daniel Fox, Lambrini Girls have created an album that effortlessly straddles the line between ferocity and humour. It’s a rallying cry against homophobia, racism, TERFs, gentrification, nepo-babies and misogyny.
On the surface, it’s a garage-punk album, but Lunny’s sharp lyrical witticisms continually elevate it. “If you want success to last, fetishise the working class, from your five-bed house in Surrey,” she belts out on the brutally pointed Filthy Rich Nepo Baby. Not since Jarvis Cocker have the upper classes been so artfully skewered in musical form.
Album opener Bad Apple lays out a solid blueprint for all that follows. Discordant sirens ring out beneath a tumult of guitars, bass, and drums as Lunny places the police squarely in her crosshairs. Altogether now: “Officer, what seems to be the problem!?”
While punk forms the backbone, the sonic palette is broader, blending grunge, pop, rock, and even the occasional hint of Prodigy-esque electro chaos (particularly on the aforementioned opener).
If there are criticisms to be made, they’d mostly be aimed at how derivative the album occasionally sounds. It’s an album that chooses to repurpose rather than reinvent. At times, Lunny’s diatribal delivery skirts a little too close to repetition, and by the midway point, listener fatigue threatens. But thankfully, Lambrini Girls’ relentless energy, along with their irresistibly rowdy instrumentation, prevents you from reaching for the skip button.
Penultimate track Love hints at bolder ambitions, opening with luscious, feedback-infused guitars that briefly suggest a stylistic departure. Unfortunately, it quickly veers back into more familiar territory. That’s not to say it isn’t a good song, you just kind of hoped they had something a little different up their sleeve. But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, goes the old adage, and it’s fair to say Who Let The Dogs Out certainly isn’t broken.
The album is capped off brilliantly by the undeniable standout: Cuntology 101 - a song so good it manages to both elevate the album as a whole and stand alone as its own chest-beating entity. It hits that magical sweet spot between pop and punk, which is no mean feat. Too much or too little of either usually ends up alienating everyone. But we’re in safe hands, Cuntology 101 is pop-punk perfection. Imagine Black Flag going out on the lash with ’90s pop-punk duo Shampoo and you’re pretty much there. It’s a hilarious verbal tirade that makes you want to dance and smash things up at the same time, just as all good punk songs should.
Who Let The Dogs Out is a socially astute garage-punk masterclass - and anyone who doesn’t agree is cunty.