Skinny Girl Diet
Reclaim Your Life
October 16 2015 (Fiasco Records)
7.5/10
Words: Alison Mack
North London Riot Grrrl teens Skinny Girl Diet, whose cute looks belie their raw and feisty punk/grunge sound, feminist ethos and sharp, punchy POV lyrics, put out their statement in this three-track EP that moves them on from their previous 'Girl Gang State Of Mind' work.
While the trio's sound continues to be as brash and "fuck you" in punk attitude as it ever was, it has now broadened in confidence and panache that sees them deliver the goods with a musicality beneath the veneer.
Take single release 'Silver Spoons'. Big, weighty guitar riffs straddle behind a taught three-minute vocal onslaught from Delilah Holliday, who says the song is "about being working class and trying to aspire to be something more than getting a cashier job at Morrisons...Ursula wrote the lyrics about the government being unaffected by issues that really matter, like police corruption, which is sang in the intro.”
In contrast, 'Fix Me' is “an anti-love song. It's about someone helping you to fall in love with yourself and putting you back together again; it's about when you’re too scared to ask for help from someone.” But don't expect this to be an exercise in mushy sentiments, not from these girls. Think something akin to early Hole with a touch of the Slits, fitted out with dense guitar layers, hammered drumbeats and a hazy, sultry vocal delivery.
Closing on the darker toned 'Wasted Smile' - "about putting a fake smile on your face while turmoil is going on in your head” - Delilah impassioned howls slip in and out around sister drummer Ursula's skin pounding at the back of the net, while bassist cousin Amelia Cutler adds spiky frantic intensity to set the seal on the EP's short, but effective, presence.
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