Whenever I listen to bands like The Locust, I’m always impressed by their sense of being able to be completely stark raving bonkers mad, yet still appear to be coherent and clear. It’s a trick that any of these spazz-type bands need to be able to do if they’re going to be listenable. It’s ok being chaotic and mixing up a pile of different sounds, but if it ends up sounding like a big mess, well, no-one’s going to listen to it are they?
‘Canada Songs’ proved to be the record which thrust Daughters into the public sphere, but I’m not convinced ‘Hell Songs’ – quite appropriately named incidentally – will have the same cut and thrust. The muddy basslines and splatter of hard-hitting guitar riffs tend to blend into one another, while the vocals, previously a bloodcurdling scream, have changhed into some bizarre singing drawl; an out-of-tune car crash which doesn’t mesh well with the music. Maybe that was the point – after all this record is called ‘Hell Songs’ – but after listening to this CD a few times I’ve come to resent it. It should work, but it just doesn’t. Maybe I’ve missed the point, but compared to their last effort, this is a real disappointment.