Spinnerette

It’s been six years since former Distillers singer Brody Dalle last released a record. During that time she left her then husband Tim Armstrong from Rancid, hooked up with Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme, was made an unwitting indie pin-up and became a mother for the first time. In many ways Spinnerette’s debut is her getting back to the day job, but while Brody may have made her name as the mohawked punk rock frontwoman whose voice sounded like she gargled glass as if it were mouth wash, it appears that she’s now left that behind and her new sound is a kind of Era Vulgaris-esque clash of hormones and horniness.
Gone are the buzzsaw guitars and Discharge-inspired riffs and in its place are handclaps, electronic pulses, yelps and guitars that sound like QOTSA cast-offs. However, once you get past the initial disappointment that Brody can’t come up with a sound of her own (this isn’t the first time she’s borrowed someone’s hymn sheet - all three Distillers records owed a lot to the Rancid school of riffage too) you’ve got a record that’s a pretty tasty offering indeed. ‘Sex Bomb’ is an almost funky, hilarious yet ultimately catchy ode to Homme, album opener ‘Ghetto Love’ is a hook-laden triumph, ‘A Spectral Suspension’ may have the QOTSA ginger giant’s hand prints all over it, but it’s still a killer tune and ‘Geeking,’ a song which started out life as a lullaby she sang to her daughter, is actually quite sweet.
While Spinnerette has its flaws, it seems that Brody’s magpie-like talent for adopting a sound as her own has once again paid off big time. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take another six years for her to release a follow up.

Key Track: ‘Sex Bomb’