Too irresistible to be honest? A debut album bursting with girl power that doesn’t mince words.
One cannot deny Josephine and Julianna Hopkins one definite quality: candor. One of the first songs the two sisters (London-based, and sometimes Paris-based) write together, Not Cool, is a no-holds-barred homage to a few of their exes, a gallery of self-centered incompetents swiftly dressed up in three furious and wry verses.
The title track sits prominently on a debut album that never abandons this irresistibly acidic tone – opening with a Sorry Mister dedicated to pests of every kind.
Nervy basslines and sparkling keyboards
To wrap their sharp diatribes in the most direct way either: this punk energy that threads their various pop influences together, from Riot Grrrl to Billie Eilish (the hypnotic Weirdo Magnet) via Lily Allen and the nineties sounds of Garbage or Elastica (Baby K).
Skin & Blisters, which signs their breakout debut, is packed with hooks as sticky as they are peppery. Under its 56k-ish gimmick, Waste of Space is relentlessly danceable, just like the shrill refrain of Calvin Klein. The sinewy basses (Killing It) and the glittering keyboards (Fence Sitter) make it hum and lift what elsewhere would be merely fodder for trendy jingles (TGIF).
Sure, apart from the moving Frankenstein, which alone interrupts the volley of singles, the collection can be a bit predictable at times. But we’ll trust in the cunning sibling dynamic: their ostensibly brainless pop is too intelligent to be merely clever.
Skin & Blisters (PIAS). Release on October 30. In concert at the Label’s Popup! in Paris, on October 29.
