Goat Girl

Goat Girl might be 19 tracks long but don't let that put you off. At just 40 minutes in length it doesn't stick around long enough to incur tedium, and what's more, each of its consistent parts makes for an explosive whole that demands repeat listens.

Earworm guitar licks and choir-like harmonies sprout unexpectedly from Goat Girl’s skeletal, unpredictable songs like wildflowers in landfill.

The four piece’s debut album is a grubby, clattering thing that takes its lead from 1980s LA punk trailblazers like X and The Gun Club, who took traditional country music and fed it moonshine until it fell down in a ditch, then scraped the mud off its jeans, handed it a microphone and a broken electric guitar and made it walk through broken glass to sing in a grotty toilet venue bar over a broken PA system.

Goat Girl’s London is a murkier, and at times far more unsettling place. Creep exposes a public transport pervert, complete with a 'dirty trouser stain,' atop ominous strings and fierce percussion, while The Man with No Heart or Brain is as scornful as it sounds.

For its chaos and often mismatched layers, [Goat Girl] is an album that shows a well-developed skill set, and how Goat Girl the band has more to it than initially meets the ear.

Goat Girl's vision is as unique as an oily fingerprint, their confidence dizzying, and richly justified. [May 2018, p.90]

It's fantastically alive, electrifying and witty stuff, the sound of something fresh and thrilling occurring. [May 2018, p.109]

Thrillingly perma-bored, sarcastic and suffused with the stench of inadequately ventilated student accommodation. [May 2018, p.28]

Funny, raging, unpredictable and electric, this is a record that feels alive.

Goat Girl is an impressive debut that shows a band with great promise.

At 19 tracks in length, their debut appears daunting but proves to be light and accessible, with plenty of offbeat wit and many an unexpected twist down gothic country roads.

From the 19-song tracklist of short tunes to the complete disregard for standard song structures, Goat Girl’s self-titled is a punk album in demeanor, if not in style. The result makes for a far more fascinating record than initial singles would have led us to believe. In defying expectations, the band exceeds them.

Somewhat predictably there are a few misfires--like the distracting “A Swamp Dog’s Tale” (featuring spoken word rambling from guest Lincoln Barrett) and the detuned-skanking instrumental “Dance Of Dirty Leftovers”--but overall the quality control is commendably high for a band still so young. The potential for something even more finessed--though no less barbed--next time around is clearly apparent. Until then though, this eponymous entrée is a stealthily impressive long-form introduction.