The three LA sisters return with a biting, whip-smart, arresting fourth indie-rock LP based very much on a certain big breakup, laced with ire and caustic lyrics, fired by the former relationship of lead singer Danielle and Ariel Rechtshaid, the producer who worked on all three of the band’s previous albums, but naturally not this one (Danielle co-produces with Rostam Batmanglij and Buddy Ross). It pulls no punches, and does not hesitate to put the boot in, revelling in freedom and a salvo of ‘ouch’ moments, from opener Gone, with begins with acoustic strums, and Danielle’s whispering, address to her ex - exalting her freedom (“I'll do whatever I want/ I'll see who I wanna see/ I'll fuck off whenever I want/ I'll be whatever I need with sample of the George Michael mega0hit of 1990, syncopated drum beats, and a particular Rolling Stones-y guitar solo. On another of the more powerful numbers, which has bluesy, country guitars, Blood On The Street, she declares: “I swear you wouldn’t care if I was covered in blood lying dead on the street.” Relationships goes for a wider-market soul-pop-R&B-funk style, one that feels strange in the context of their normal genre, but holds its own. Down To Be Wrong is a stripped back, simple-beat, catchy country-pop number: “You never helped me/ It was like hell for me / But you're the greatest pretender/ So just keep pretending …” Take Me Back is a pacy, punchy, droll yet candid, acoustic, handclap, talky indie, while Million Years is intricately fast, wistful, interweaving vocal synth-pop, adding lots of nuance to the difficulties of recovering from a deep emotional entanglement. A lengthy, exhaustive release, mixed with a wide spectrum of styles, moods and different emotions, but successfully capturing the clearly complex, messy process of a deep-relationship breakup and ending strongly with the final, rock-out number Now It’s Time. Out on Columbia Records/ Polydor.
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