From Vegas to Blackpool and beyond: The Dollheads graduate from prodigies to powerhouses on Adol-Essence – our LOUD WOMEN #albumofthemonth

Perhaps surprisingly to anyone only aware of the scene’s snarky origins, punk has respect and punk gives credit where credit is due. So when the punks packed out Blackpool’s Grade II Empress Ballroom this summer to see Grade I Nevada pop kids The Dollheads level up from last year’s appearance on the Rebellion Introducing Stage, it was in truth only to be expected. Word has, quite rightly, spread. May the same fate await the band’s superlative new LP, Adol-Essence, for it’s a bobbydazzler and no mistake (yeah I’ll be leaning into my Englishness for this review).

Billing this as their “first label-supported album”, The Dollheads neatly sidestep the dilemma of the year-zero approach to previous material. You might perhaps expect a band aged approximately 12-15 then and 15-18 now to rest more on their, well, their USP, but no: no mere juvenilia, their first – entirely DIY – long-player What Teenage Angst, was already far better than it needed to be and revealed Angela, Samantha and Austin’s solid grasp of songwriting skill alongside the more easily anticipated energy and verve. Adol-Essence is more of the same only so much better, bigger, louder, FASTER, more layered, more considered. With their first LP, in hindsight it sounds like they were in the studio to make a demo; with this album they’ve made a statement.

Second time around you can hear every pummelling bassline and every resounding drumbeat, while Angela’s masterful Joan-meets-Brody punk/rock vocals are turned up to 11 and gilded with excellent backing harmonies from Samantha. All of the above is then employed to full effect on a series of, frankly, pretty irresistible tunes.

The first side opens with the storming ‘Don’t Let It Take Me’, whose lyrics may or may not involve an allegory for adulthood. Thematically, all the tensions and personal politics of teenage and school life abound on this record, exemplified perfectly by the opening line of the next track, ‘See You In Hell’:

“If you’re trying to be a dick you’re doing great!”

‘So What’ (very much not an ANL cover) denounces the social hierarchy in the name of “the voices of my generation.. ready for a revolution”, which is obviously fair enough as it’s about time North America had another one (the previous one left so much unfinished business). Side One then closes with the sublime and unexpectedly epic ‘Dream’, which I won’t spoil by trying to describe but suffice to say is the longest song on the record yet you won’t want it to end.

The second half starts with the classicist punk of the title track, somehow simultaneously sounding like a cherrypicked blend of groups from several generations, from the Undertones to the Go-Go’s to something on Lookout or Epitaph (or Hellcat or Adeline) from the 90s punk boom. Then the ‘Dirty’/’M.U.D.’/’Rushing’ sequence provides another relentless multiple-hit of adrenaline, with Austin’s drums particularly powerful on the latter track, also featuring my fav chord on the album (a long E minor, thanks for asking).

At this point in proceedings, ‘I Can’t Stay’ re-emphasises the Dollheads’ pop credentials and you might find yourself noticing two things: first, the way the band has sandwiched their more aggressive tracks inside the radio-friendly beginning-middle-end of ‘Don’t Let It..’, ‘Dream’ and this penultimate jewel of a tune, with its “I’m stuck inside my head” cri de coeur; secondly, that the archetypally adolescent wordplay of lyrics like “my pain is just your lullaby”, “you can’t change me or rearrange me” and “I don’t owe you anything” throughout the album, alongside the Beckettian ‘I can’t go on, I’ll go on’ undertone seem to embody not just the teenage wasteland but the other one too, the one waiting outside when school’s out- that seam that rock and punk have been tapping ever since Chuck Berry invented them both. Which is another way of saying that simply by being themselves, the Dollheads have hit the motherlode. In turn, punk rejuvenates itself.

But hang on, where does this leave the final track, ‘Burger King Is Hiring’? Well, that’s the encore of course, a beautifully raw ‘fuck you’ to a youtube keyboard warrior who told them to give up the music. His loss is our gain. From Las Vegas to the world: viva The Dollheads.

‘Adolescence’ is out NOW on BTTG.