{"id":67875,"date":"2021-02-23T19:08:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T19:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=67875"},"modified":"2021-02-23T19:15:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T19:15:06","slug":"goat-girls-on-all-fours-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2021\/02\/goat-girls-on-all-fours-album-review\/","title":{"rendered":"METAL MACHINE MUSIC – Sophomore Album ‘On All Fours’ Sees Goat Girl Embracing Electronics"},"content":{"rendered":"

They\u2019re a curious bunch, this Goat Girl<\/strong> band.<\/h4>\n

Named after US comic Bill Hick<\/strong>\u2019s randy Pan-like alter-ego Goat Boy, they\u2019ve adopted their own Punk-ish, monikers Clottie Cream, Rosy Bones, Holly Hole and L.E.D.<\/h4>\n

Signed by zeitgeist echo locators Rough Trade<\/strong>, their self-titled debut was full of angular guitars and confrontational social commentary.<\/p>\n

Short snappy and in your face, it packed 19 tracks into its 40-minute running time.<\/p>\n

Now they\u2019re back with a new album On All Fours<\/em><\/strong>, a new(-ish) bassist – Hole replacing Naima Jelly<\/strong> – and a new expansive sound.<\/p>\n

The guitars are still there, but largely tamed and melded with a wholehearted embrace of electronica and a cooler, more abstract approach.<\/p>\n

Songs are longer, often with shifting time signatures and the raw edges of the first record hewn away.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/p>\n

It\u2019s mature, controlled, precise and lush, tracks The Crack – <\/em><\/strong>which tells of humans fleeing a dying planet – make you want to use words like mellifluous.<\/p>\n

Genres are fused, mashed and completely thrown out of the window – the epic Bang <\/em><\/strong>sounding like a contender for the next Bond theme.<\/p>\n

Storytelling is less explicit, but the band have an uncanny knack for using small personal events to expound on wider themes.<\/p>\n

Western arrogance is chided on The Pest<\/em><\/strong> and more intimately in the tale of painful brush with an inconsiderate idiot on a ferry on P.T.S Tea<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

On Badibada <\/em><\/strong>airy harmonies create a breezy backdrop as the protagonists blithely ignore a developing global emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarry on like we\u2019re protected\/As if we\u2019re unaffected,\u201d L.E.D sings before it all comes crashing down in the jarring final movement.<\/p>\n

With its Morricone-esque guitars, single Sad Cowboy <\/em><\/strong>begins as a moonlit tour of the local neighbourhood, but by the end, things are not quite as they seem.<\/p>\n