The
starting point for Milk Teeth is
very much punk in the 90s grunge mould, but – within that general template –
there’s a wide amount of variety. For
one thing, the switches between male and female vocals on different tracks
immediately creates diversity. More than
that, though, the songs range from The
Joy Formidable’s style of slow, prog-grunge on ‘Driveway Birthday’, through
wonderful ‘Something in the Way’-alike plodathon ‘Kabuki’, to the pounding
bile-punk of ‘Get a Clue’. The last of
these three songs, by the way, is just wow. This is a record that hits hard when it
wants to, but has a lot more depth and range to offer than its shouty tracks
might initially suggest. Vile Child is perhaps not quite as
focused as last year’s Sad Sack EP –
it dips here and there – but it’s still a great debut album that bodes well for
a young band finding its feet. A record
that channels the 90s but sounds very 2016.
sample track: Get a Clue