Bat Fangs
Pulling roots in Ex Hex and Flesh World, the members of Bat Fangs already boast a pretty enviable resume, but they make their new collab just as swoon-worthy and cement their status as indie pummelers on par with their other groups over the course of their eponymous LP’s tight twenty-five minutes. The duo of Betsy Wright and Laura King pull from an era of rock that’s built on towering riffs and just as often, towering hair. They inject every second of their debut LP with the metal-toughened power pop that went on to rule ‘80s radio, but they give it the kind of ephemeral cool that distinguished Joan Jett from the pack of spandex-clad meatheads. The record’s a stripped back punk swipe at the headbanger’s hallowed ground and they make the most out of balancing proto-metal’s glam hangover with streaks of pop that go beyond the shred-heavy mentality of their influences.
What really sets the record apart is a vampy dark streak that pulls from the Ozzy/Meatloaf school but just as often drenches it in the molten intensity of Pat Benatar or slips on The Go-Go’s pop-perfect harmonies. Wright isn’t stretching for lyrical permanence here, but that’s never what this kind of record was about. The troubadours have their place, but sometimes it’s all about love in a leather jacket with the stereo on loud. That’s the nugget of Bat Fangs – pulling off an effortless cool while setting the soundtrack to skipping school with your new crush in style. Wright and King have succeeded in giving you the perfect soundtrack to summer six months early.
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