Goat Girl is a balancing act, really. The London art rock trio toned down the melodic references to cyanide on 2018's self-titled debut album and used breezy synths to make the scab sound more relaxed in 2021 On four. Their third album, Under the Waste, once again robbing the garbage can for inspiration – entrails and mud are some featured lyrics – but they're not as clear cut as they used to be. Now, the mastery of the band's balance lies primarily in their production. Under the Waste welds KidHis scrap metal sticks to his most subtle garage-pop groove On four, creating a more refined version of the band's music. They jump in the dirt and do it in style.
To mark the occasion, the band seem to have ditched the Throbbing Gristle-type names. Singer Clottie Cream has returned to Lottie Pendlebury, bassist Holly Hole has left to form Holly Mullineaux and drummer Rosy Bones welcomes back Rosy Jones. The shedding of even this thin layer of artifice, aided by co-production from black midi engineer John “Spud” Murphy, reflects the band's fresh interest in analog sounds.
Some of Under the WasteIts most compelling moments come from a textured jumble of orchestral arrangements and the steely glam of synths. A plucked guitar constantly cracks the static TV surface of “dropped out words” like a distant bird bursting through the clouds, and softens Pendlebury's vocal delivery, which has a bit of Tori Amos or red wine dryness. “maybe” thickens her voice with a drunken clarinet melody, deepening the anxiety of the phone she's singing about. The flute that comes later is beautiful, but doesn't match the darkness of a drooling guitar line. All these sounds fight for space in the songs and create an infectious tension throughout the record.
Through these fascinating layers, the Goat Girl pad Under the Waste with luxurious fullness, occasionally to the detriment of the album. In 16 songs, Under the Waste returns Goat Girl in 2018, when their debut album dropped to its 19 songs. Two of Under the WasteIts instrumental interludes, 'smog' and 'prelude', sound like lo-fi guitar strumming and don't match or contribute much to the album's lively energy. But, for the rest of its runtime, Under the WasteHis decadent production holds your attention. We hear Pendlebury sighing in infinite circles on 'pretty faces', as if she's continually collapsing into the song's decadent layer of chords and building our suspense for the coming collapse: a little whirlwind of moans, choruses and stuttering violin.
While most of Under the WasteHis songs value symmetry in their rich instrumentals and vocal harmonies, it's thrilling when one transcends the other. Most of the frenzied and tired sounds of 'tcnc' are swallowed whole by an earthquake, the synth humming over everything like a passing train. At the opposite end, a stabbing, brassy keyboard hook leads us down the listless “highway” like a series of buttons, but Pendlebury's sleep-deprived vignettes—”Called out shotgun/Motion sickness/Road to never”—make it cautious and romantic . This ability to summon tension without a lyrical shock factor is new to Goat Girl and all the better for it.
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