Bratmobile: Ladies, Women And Girls : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Few folks hovering near thirty would welcome the label "brats," but singer Allison Wolfe, guitarist Erin Smith and drummer Molly Neuman wear it with style on Ladies, Women and Girls, Bratmobile's first release in six years. Since re-forming for live shows two years back, these original riot grrrls have beefed up their rudimentary punk sound with bigger guitars and friskier drums. Lacing bubble gum with battery acid, Wolfe wags her finger gloriously at her foes on "Eating Toothpaste," boasting with schoolyard sass, "You don't know what it's like to be me/You just know what it's like to be mean." But what makes this record Bratmobile's strongest is the grown-up "I'm in Love With All My Lovers," where the typically impudent Wolfe reveals herself powerless in the face of her mother's cancer. With Ladies, Women and Girls, Bratmobile place themselves alongside Sleater-Kinney, Le Tigre and the Need on the front line of the rebel-girl revival. (RS 855)

CHRIS NELSON