If simplicity is the key, then the back-to-basics garage rock
in the sophomore release by Nashville, Tennessee’s
Be Your Own Pet is the perfect lock pick . This is a much more assured, spunkier,
smarter, and louder and (most notably) faster outing than their self-titled debut.
Nineteen year-old lead singer Jemina Pearl belts out bitchy vocals about sex, drugs and teenage
apathy with persistent lack of subtlety and affective disgust that can only
come from one on the cusp of adulthood.
With new drummer John Eatherly added to the fray, and
guitarist Jonas Stein’s catchy three-chord progressions, Be Your Own Pet have
managed to infuse the sound with more choruses, tempo changes and a calculated
zeal that makes the songs feel more composed than written.
This is no more
apparent than in the first single “The Kelly Affair”, with its infectious groove and
a snappy lyric (Everybody here parties all the time! /Everybody here's got sex on their minds! / It could be dangerous.) She gets
the mad fervor just right on “Black Hole” (Living in this city, I get so bored
/ Wanna kill myself on a telephone cord), and on “Bummer Time” she gets help
from the boys on vocal backup, making this record sound more like a cohesive band.
“Music for the neck downwards” is how Keith Richards summed
up Rock and Roll, and that is a most fitting description of Get Awkward if there ever was one.
Mosh pits at the ready...
This Reviewer's Rating: 4.0 / 5
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