SAVAGES

SILENCE YOURSELF (Matador)

18/20

Is there anything more refreshing than Savages’ roving post-punk austerity in music right now? Has there ever been four women making a better noise than this? Probably not is the answer to both questions. The ongoing Joy Division comparisons end with the bassline of opener Shut Up and the blackness of their get-up. The shrill cacophony that forms the last 20 seconds of next track I Am Here continues to banish those frequent, lazy correlations. Of all their attributes, it’s the addictive bleakness of the record which leaves you gasping, as does the vocal performance of lead singer Jehnny Beth whose contribution to standout track Waiting For A Sign is only eclipsed by its closing guitar screech. For one and a-half minutes She Will is the closest thing to a pop song on the album before wonderfully degenerating into a Siouxie Sioux-style wail that also conjures the punishing angst present on Rid Of Me-era PJ Harvey. Beth’s vocals take on a more punishing style on Hit Me and breakthrough track Husbands, both of which recall Karen O at her most playful and punk-tinged. In fact, if you were to amalgamate and condense these reference points you’d have an idea how vitally important it is to have Savages projecting this kind of music in an era where females are sold down the industry river with unnerving regularity. Yes, the image is sheer, severe Bauhaus, and the echo-laden production carries the sparsity of something recorded in the bowels of a German power station, but has that not always been fucking cool?

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Words: Thomas Frost