Review | Lady Bird – WE

Label: Alcopop! Records

‘WE’ is the latest release on Alcopop! Records and the debut of three piece Lady Bird. Fusing multiple genres, Lady Bird come out of the gates swinging with opener ‘Guided Hesitation’. The blistering guitars and drums are the artillery that lay ground fire for vocalist Don Bird’s poetic delivery. As a statement of intent, ‘Guided Hesitation’ certainly grabs your attention.

‘Bludsuckers’ soon swaggers in with buzzsaw staccato guitars backed up with all the attitude and indie pop grandness of early Arctic Monkeys. A song about people that drain your energy, it’s certainly a topic that a lot of us can empathise with. After the furious garage punk twin attack of ‘Factory Fool’ and ‘Infants’, Lady Bird show their range with ‘Individualism’ which is a grand pop gem. All major chords and joy, it feels like an anthemic break from their brand of abrasive, sweat-inducing post punk.

Title track ‘WE’ is as vulnerable a track as you can get. A tribute to his late father, guitarist Alex takes the lead on ‘WE’ with only an acoustic guitar for support. As the guitar strums it’s last chord, you can hear how raw the emotion is when the microphone is left on and you can hear Alex letting the tears go.

‘Karma’ soon crashes in to get things back on track with Don’s vocals spat over a beastly guitar tone playing a single note riff that doesn’t sound empty despite only being guitar with an octave pedal. As a three piece, Lady Bird create one hell of a noise. With a sound that takes in everything from punk to indie to hardcore to post punk, Lady Bird manage to keep consistency in the sound and have planted a flag in their own little corner of the musical globe.