I must confess that it isn’t often I get something to review by a female band which has me staring at their picture thinking about whether I’d want to, er, get to know any of them better.

In the same way that The Bangles were marketed as sexy chicks when they only had one ‘looker’ (step forward, Ms. Hoffs), we have a band here that should know better than to try to trade on their looks. I could easily pluck four girls from uk-fusion and they’d ace this sorry lot in a bikini contest no problem.

Any way, this is about music, not looks. And that’s another problem. This is Status Quo, Poison, Bon Jovi, a retro-rock yawnathon about backstage partying and, er, nothing else. It’s alternative music for deluded squares. Mundane, repetitious and full of phoney teenage angst, ("we don’t care if you think our party’s cool!" Good! I don’t care if you care! Just stop playing the goddamn song!) it’s kind of painful in the same way that Shampoo were painful, or nailing your tongue to the wall is painful. 

The only saving grace is the remarkably assured vocal delivery, which would sound at home on music far, far better than this. If you want feisty fem-pop, go get anything by Throwing Muses, Belly, the Breeders, the Amps, Veruca Salt, Tanya Donelly.  Really, do think twice about this. I mean, I don’t like Shania Twain either, but at least I can press "mute" and enjoy her videos.  
(1½/5)

Release Date: 23 June 2003

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