Savages // Silence Yourself
This is the most vital, essential, urgent music I’ve heard in a long time.
The security surrounding the release of this, Savages’ debut album is – although internet based – palpable. It’s the one LP that every hack seems to want to get their hands on, and it’s all based on a double A-side single, and a four track live EP, coupled with some enigmatic grainy images of the four girls that make up the band, depicted with muted feminism. Let me tell you, there’s a reason why you have to pay a quid to release a Sainsbury’s trolley, yet the Aldi wheeled shoppers are allowed to roam around the car park. This is the most vital, essential, urgent music I’ve heard in a long time. They’re four girls who make visceral music without a hint of apology. It’s so unabashed, and that’s reflected in the themes of the album; the overarching idea of the album seems to be to assert the arrival of the girls, (“I Am Here”), whilst denouncing the existence of everyone else (“No face, you have no face.”) Album highlights come from new single and album opener, ‘Shut Up’ – it’s such a perfect knockout blow that it’s hard to even get up to hear the rest of the album, and previous single, ‘Husbands’, complete with frenetic, tumbling guitars and belly-growl-to-wispy-French-shriek from frontwoman Jehnny Beth. Last track, ‘Marshal Dear’ indicates a more contemplative side to the girls, and before this album’s even officially out, I’m salivating for the next.
10/10 Emma Garwood
