SUGAREGG

Album review

Nashville, Tennessee, may be synonymous with country music to most of the world but like Hayley Williams (Paramore) and Jemina Pearl (Be Your Own Pet) before her, Alicia Bognanno—performing as Bully—proves there's a place in that town for anxious, throat-shredding rock 'n' roll. Bully's earlier work was appealing, but on this, her third album, Bognanno positively coalesces her power. (Credit, too, goes to John Congleton, the first producer that Bognanno, an audio engineer who interned at Steve Albini's Chicago studio, has worked with.) First things first: Her voice is a singular force, one of those love-it-or-hate situations. Equal parts Kim Shattuck of The Muffs (loud, forceful, able to hit notes in another stratosphere) and '80s dance rocker turned animated voiceover icon E.G. Daily (cartoonish, surprisingly sweet and gritty), it can knock down doors or tug at heartstrings. She uses it to full storm effect on opener "Add It On," a typhoon swirl of chiming guitar and racing drums; and the sunny chaos of "Where to Start," spitting "I was better then, back again, Ambien" like she's singing to a packed arena. Put another way: Imagine if the '90s Sub Pop band Velocity Girl had had actual velocity. "Prism" makes a case for welcoming back power ballads and "Come Down" is a rollercoaster of dynamics, all easygoing drums and laconic vocal delivery, then exploding into a meteor shower chorus, and back again. For all the fun-house noise, it's also worth leaning in to listen to the lyrics. On the energized shoegazer "Every Tradition," Bognanno tells a society that—yes, still—puts pressure on women to have babies—to "turn around and bite your tongue till it bleeds." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz