Review by Tony Rounce

One of the nicest surprises at Loud Women 4 was finding a brand new ARXX EP on the merch table. I had asked both Hannah and Clara in the summer if there would be any new physical product coming this year to follow 2018’s still-incredible “Daughter Of Daughters” mini-album, but they had been surprisingly reluctant to comment… 

…Et voila, there it was, and here it is – four songs and five tracks, conveniently bagged and tagged as “Wrong Girl, Honey”.  An item that nobody with even a passing interest in what’s really happening in music today can afford to be without.

ARXX have already issued two of the tracks,  ‘Iron Lung’ and, more recently ‘Y.G.W.Y.W’ – a lyric line from which gives the new EP its title – through all the usual stream-able platforms, and have accrued an enormous number of ‘listen’s that way.  As well they deserved to for making two of the very best singles that 2019 has brought us.  Both tunes are among the highlights of any and every ARXX live set, and on record (well, CD) they sturdily reinforce the passionate aggression of Hannah and Clara’s stage presentation.  If you don’t yet know either song, you need to remedy that immediately. 

The two ‘singles’ are joined by two more previously unrecorded songs – one fairly new, and one fairly not so new. The powerful yet melancholic ‘Swallowed The Sun’ has been a feature of ARXX’ live sets since the spring. On record it is also a compelling showcase for Hannah’s mighty vocal and emotional range, simultaneously reinforcing my own belief that Clara’s command of her kit makes her one of the best – if not THE best – one-person rhythm section out there right now. 

‘The Storm’ by contrast, is a song from the pre-Clara days of ARXX that the duo resurrected to great effect for Loud Women 4.  There are two versions of it here, both of them delightful. If you didn’t make LW4, and thus haven’t heard it yet, imagine the Shangri-Las backed by AC/DC and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you’re in for.

ARXX are currently in the midst of an ongoing European tour that takes them all over the UK and runs through to the end of October, finishing with a homecoming gig at Brighton’s excellent Hope & Ruin pub on October 22nd.   The “Wrong Girl, Honey” EP is officially released at the beginning of November, but should be available at most if not all of their upcoming shows.  Please feel free to consider it an essential purchase.

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