Lambrini Girls – Who Let the Dogs Out Review

Baha Men may have asked, but it is up to Lambrini Girls to answer. Who Let the Dogs Out, the hotly anticipated album debut from one of the country’s best punk duos is here. Their disgust at popular culture featured well on EP You’re Welcome, and the sense of smug pride of being removed from the everyday chops and changes of socially acceptable sound is a grand benefit to Lambrini Girls. Their first album is filled with not just the sound of the times but the deconstruction of the always-online experience. Stocked up on booze and rage, the former fuelling the latter, Who Let the Dogs Out provides a sharp and often sickening view of the world around us, a country in cultural ruin. Lambrini Girls gives us something to hope for, or at the very least, a few new targets for our spite. 

Brilliant punk fun reveals itself on Who Let the Dogs Out. Charming and brutal in equal measure – appearing immediately in the wailing sirens and rush of heavy percussion on Bad Apple. As much a takedown of modern policing as it is an assessment of the rebellious attitude, how we weigh ourselves up against the cuffs which hold us, culturally and literally. Short, punchy songs with brutal results. Who Let the Dogs Out has the fundamental punk charms but Lambrini Girls does brilliantly to evolve this sound. Where the blur of instrumental fury and vocal harshness works so well is in the questioning of social norms. There is no sense of conclusion or a suggestion of another route through, the clarity from Who Let the Dogs Out comes from being disturbed by a lacklustre reality. Live a new life through Company Culture, and feel for the old world.  

Who Let the Dogs Out is a chance to march on to the real world, to fight against the objectionable commentaries held up by an older generation. Lambrini Girls writes and records this album in a whirlwind of rightfully enraged brilliance. Who Let the Dogs Out is a constant stream of songs putting down the most disturbed and indescribably horrific groups of commonly accepted culture. From Big Dick Energy to Filthy Rich Nepo Baby, there are common commentaries on the cringe-inducing world around us, the accepted social norms which the average thinking person will remain disgusted by. The UK is a smorgasbord of problems and Who Let the Dogs Out profiles a prolific few. Performative actions are dismantled by Lambrini Girls.  

Vocalist Phoebe Lunny and bassist Lilly Macieira are hitting on all the right instrumental riffs, pairing them with one of the few sincere commentaries available on the punk scene currently. The genre is stuffed full of wannabes who are trading their rage at the world in for a cushy spot in the middle class, looking around and down rather than punching up. At least Lambrini Girls are pursuing the punchy, garage rock-like sound found on No Homo. Who Let the Dogs Out is not just a cultural rage but a slick and sharp instrumental powerhouse, filled with incredible guitar riffs and articulate, bold percussion. Those punk fundamentals which still guide the genre are found within but more than enough is done by Lambrini Girls to evolve these feelings of discontent into studies of the underwhelming country we find ourselves in.  

Take a piece of Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels and use this as a launch pad for your year. We are being set up for failure, for underwhelming exchanges the world over. Lambrini Girls finds reason for rage, and we would do right to follow in their footsteps. Nepotism, nastiness and all the new sounds of noisy rage come together to make a blisteringly great piece of work. Lambrini Girls were bound to do this well – but the longevity of Who Let the Dogs Out, in those fast-spoken stylings of Special, Different or the rightful fury of Company Culture, is its real, generational strength.