Goat Girl -- On All Fours: Review

Goat Girl -- On All Fours

[Rough Trade]

Goat Girl return with On All Fours, the sophomore follow-up to their eclectic, eponymous LP Goat Girl, released back in 2018. The london post-punk quintet out of South London have made wave for their creative guitar-driven punk bangers combining sounds of neo-psychedelia and post-hardcore.

The debut record interested the punk scene for the band’s tenacity towards tight and colorful song writing, packing the first record with a hefty 19 tracks in just forty minutes. Most songs utilized a short two minute or so runtime to explore different mantras and themes gracefully and energetically.

So Goat Girl was expected to follow up the debut with more hits and more expansion into their own sound but On All Fours broke various expectations for several reasons. The song structures, lyrical topic, and overall timbre were more ambitious, and the band stepped forward with an exciting new sound that succeeded in expanding on their sound but missed the landing.

The first main difference at a glance is the shorter tracklist with an even longer runtime than the debut. Most tracks on On All Fours push four minutes and feature much more conventionally spaced-out structures than the brash punkiness of the debut.

However, I think this definitely can be to the detriment of quality, as some ideas draw out more than needed and get dragged down by tiring repetition. Tracks like “Once Again” and especially the closer “A-Men” get tedious in their repeating sections, often feeling more like deja vu than any kind of cool psychedelic hypnotism.

And often in many of these tracks, the different combinations of washing square leads and eerie guitar chords don’t stand out much. “Anxiety Feels” or “Once Again” again, often feel like lingering atmospheres that exit in just as sleepy ways as they started. Often when listening to the record it felt like I couldn’t notice when the last song stopped and the next one started.

But while the devil in the details draws down the power of specific tracks, there’s no denying the overall increase in musical density. Each song here packs a more polished punch than anything on the self-titled record. Even a straightforward jam like the album’s opening anthem “Pest” balances well between its layered synth work and rambling guitars.

And while some songs suffer from structure, others succeed like “Sad Cowboy”, a synth-driven hit that guides the listener on a kaleidoscopic journey through its five minute runtime, finally reaching a pseudo-techno closer. Definitely my favorite here.

Goat Girl’s On All Fours sees the English post-punk outfit biting off more than they can chew but has its highlights.

Listen To: “Sad Cowboy”

RIYL: Courtney Barnett, Tame Impala

7.1/10.

Sorry for the short one this week, 'twas a bit rushed and I am a busy boy.