Pale Lips “Wanna Be Bad”

Sometimes it only takes a few words to describe a band and make you know it’s a group you’re gonna love. That was certainly the case for us when we saw Pale Lips’ band camp site referring to them as ‘drippy mascara slopped rock n roll with sprinkles’. That’s even before we see Facebook describing their genre as ‘bubblegum punk/power pop/rock n roll’!!!!

First song, “Doo Wah Diddy Shim Sham Shimmy (Bama Lama Loo)” is thankfully as glorious as that title would suggest. It’s a fifties girl group song played by The Ramones. A theme that’s kept going by the punkier, but still poppy, “(You Made Me) Wanna Be Bad” and the brilliant rock n roll stomp of “Jangaroo”.

Indeed, songs like “1-2-3”, “Hoo-Wee-Ooh” and “Romanne” stick to the Ramones’ formula of keeping things simple, short and most importantly just great fun. Indeed, you’d be hard pushed to hear a better punk rock n roll song than the instantly addictive “Mary-Lou Sniffin’ Glue”.

The sound is expanded slightly on tracks such as “Queen Of Sparks” and “Riff Raff”. On these songs, we are really reminded of a brilliant band called Those Darlins. Like them, there’s a rough rock n roll feel to the band, but also with a hint of alternative pop sensibility about the songs. It’s melodic but still throw away and dirty rock n roll.

This album sees the Pale Lips throwing out catchy girl group flavoured songs like “Run Boy Run” and “I’m Glad There’s Only 2 of Me” in a speedy fashion. Whilst a band like The Hinds might have caught people’s attention here in the UK, you can’t help but feel that this band share their attitude but also have far better tunes. In true punk fashion, the album ends with the ‘Rock n Roll Radio’ aping “Rock N Roll Dipshit”, a snotty and brattish song.