Firing rounds at the far right should be par for the course in cultured and artistic avenues. Fish in a barrel. Putting their foot in it time after time with bile and hate. Spinning material like that into a counterpoint is a task for all the great punk bands of our time and the generation before. Lambrini Girls has proven their punk disgust time and again but with God’s Country keen advances are made on a sound which boomed through You’re Welcome. The trio sees themselves as a reasonable voice hitting out where others are trying to appease. God’s Country is a time for action – a resolute powerhouse which preys on those who see themselves as political predators. Return to the glory days. Punk needs two minutes. Lambrini Girls get it out of their system and into the minds of more with this venomous bliss.
God’s Country is a smash-and-grab at all the downfalls of a country held together by blind patriots. Lambrini Girls do well to beat down those they view as “flag shaggers” and with a buzz of traditional punk flavour, find a list of their grievances works best. Short, punchy and effective. Those are the tools of any good punk band. Within God’s Country is a barrage of contemporary failings. There is plenty to choose from and though it may sound like a Twitter echo chamber Lambrini Girls hold firm and find a point. Outrage for those in the know and a list of topics for those outside. But those in the latter camp find themselves detached from the trouble of life in the UK. It must be a sweet existence to live without fear of annoying groans when Three Lions comes on the jukebox. There is an inherent swing at surface-level culture. Your Michael McIntyre-watching, new-build home, flag-loving type is mocked relentlessly and rightly so.
On they go – no experience or style to filter through their mind. God’s Country is an infuriated shake of their shoulders and pleads for some clarity in art or utilisation of it for the betterment of the self. It does not take a detective to work this out, that art feeds the mind. Beyond its cultural stance, Lambrini Girls’ latest aims the economic and social strife of the country in jagged and often broken, brief words referencing one monstrous moment or another as if the bile in their throats rose too quickly to offer up full sentences. Instead, they hit out with those cries of understanding the divide and knowing all we can do for the time being is hurl our rage into the growing pile.
Their garage punk style is not tired yet and features the of-the-moment rage which guided all those greats in the 1970s. Where the movement is still important the scope is still the same – a counterculture bubbling away but helpless in making a major shift to the modern pop and grind they hate. We are all on the same sinking ship and camaraderie is a thing of the past. Lambrini Girls exists as a primal urge to fight the reductive horrors. God’s Country is a nice slap at the obvious tone of the country. Continually dwindling as it is, it takes mere seconds to encounter a solid piece of art worth your time. Those who manage to avoid it and take no notice are likely those who find themselves described in this flag-bashing beast of a song.
