Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Bully, Sub Pop/Bandcamp 2020.
Bully is the solo project of Alicia Bognanno who hails from Nashville Tennessee, but she is about as far as you can get from country music than is imaginable.
Bognanno plays a raw combination of garage/grungy pop that is propelled forward by a driving insistent bass.
The bass not only provides the underpinning but in many cases it acts as a melodic instrument with the rhythmic guitars, usually distorted, filling out the middle of the sound.
Alicia Bognanno is impressive, bringing great intensity to her vocals that has me harking back to Suzie Quatro.
Indeed, Bully’s sound leans heavily on the template laid down all those years ago by Quatro.
I’m not suggesting that Bognanno is modern clone of Quatro, she is definitely doing her own thing and I love the energy she generates.
Sugaregg is the third album from Bully but the first I’ve heard.
The album gets off to a roaring start with the opening track, Add It On, setting the tone for an up-tempo minimalist blast of grunge inspired rock and while the tempo and mood sometimes slows on the album the intensity rarely wanes.
Tracks like Not Ashamed are delivered with an angry and direct attack that is as punk as anything the Pistols ever did.
It doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to find out that Bognanno is a bipolar two sufferer and the recent diagnosis and treatment have resulted in her being “finally able to navigate through the ‘open door’ to write about it”.
Her lyrics are often dark and her responses strident but there are also occasional glimpses of light in tracks like Prism and Come Down that view dysfunction and relationships in an almost light-hearted way.
I’m a fan of minimalism and regularly review products from England’s Dirty Water Records, the home of garage.
I love their motto of marching backwards into the future.
Although she’s on the other side of the Atlantic, Bognanno is mining similar territory and the resultant product on this album is great.
If garage/grunge is your thing I suggest you check this album out.
