All Her Plans

Album review

Some folks get into punk rock because they just want to have fun making lots of noise, while others embrace it because they have something to say and it gives them a powerful and immediate platform for their ideas. Jenny McKechnie, the leader of Melbourne, Australia's Cable Ties, clearly falls into the latter category, though on the band's third album, 2023's All Her Plans, she knows how to fill her songs with a fire and righteous fury that makes her messages as exciting as they are thought provoking. McKechnie and her bandmates (bassist Nick Brown and drummer Shauna Boyle) rock with a lean, muscular punch and wiry energy as the indefatigable stomp of the drums give the guitar plenty of room to roar with crunchy abandon. The pleasure of this band's attack doesn't soften the impact of what they have to say, and McKechnie is not shy about mounting a soapbox when she sees fit. McKechnie's struggles with mental health informed her songwriting on All Her Plans, and "Silos" is a powerful, harrowing broadside against privatized prisons and faulty mental health services that literally turns the most desperate patients into criminals, while "Perfect Client" offers an only more measured variation on this theme, and "Thoughts Back" allows us a look into a less than healthy internal dialogue. Not all the news on All Her Plans is bad – "Mum's Caravan" is a subtly moving portrait of one woman struggling to protect her kids, "Time For You" acknowledges just how much of a difference the right amount of compassion can make, and the closer "Deep Breathe Out" acknowledges how important hope can be – and how hard it is to pull off. All Her Plans doesn't shy away from heavy themes, and McKechnie's vocals, which travel from measured to ferocious, meet strength with strength, as her bracing, elemental guitar, Boyle's hard-stomping drums, and Brown's elastic bass lines reflect the emotions of the lyrics and add an emotional power that's inspiring and commanding. All Her Plans isn't an album for folks looking for a playful, pop-punk experience, but it's a brave, powerful experience that's a reminder of how much punk rock can communicate with so few moving parts.
© Mark Deming /TiVo