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Album Reviews
Album Review: Shrag – Shrag (Where It’s At Is Where You Are)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 12 January 2009
Shrag are a shouty bunch of indie-pop kids with a bit of semi-skimmed riot grrl attitude added into the mix. Their album is thoroughly entertaining, if occasionally a little lightweight in the wake of their apparent influences: The Fall, Pavement, The Raincoats and Kathleen Hanna. This is filtered through a Balor Knights or Bearsuit-like English sensibility. Which makes sense, they are from Brighton. So, I guess Shrag can be referred to as a record collection band. They have arranged an amalgam of coherent influences with curatorial care. However, they have imbued this with their own strong personalities and essentially sardonic worldview. Therefore, instead of lambasting them as – to use Mark E Smith’s schoolyard parlance – copy cats, I’ll admit that they carry off their indie bricolage successfully. They can rightfully act like a bunch of smug bastards because that is no easy trick. ‘Pregnancy Scene’ is a highlight at the start, full of jittery guitar Spiral Stairs-isms and Mark Ibold bass like a lost Pavement song. It then has some fierce grrl-Cerberus shouts about the pitfalls of getting up the duff and the associated lifestyle choices. ‘Talk To The Left’ is brilliantly immature and cringe worthy in its candid rapprochement of men who are creepy dickheads in bed. And there’s even a song called ‘Mark E Smith’. I ask you… how can’t you like them? To be honest there aren’t really any discrete low points on the album. Shrag act like the smart arsed older sisters you never had, their borderline-vitriolic songs persistently cut people and people’s weird behaviours down to size. I’m kind of scared of them, but I think that’s a good thing. PG
