Some bands evolve gradually; Grandmas House have just kicked the door off its hinges. Having already demonstrated their energy, personality and phenomenal ability to write catchy choruses across their previous EPs, Baby You’re A Winner presents them as a far more ambitious band, one capable of blending garage rock, post-punk, grunge, dark folk, dance-punk and alternative rock while making it all sound effortless.
Produced by Ali Chant, the album is full of nuances and rhythmic shifts that reveal themselves with each new listen. The guitars are superbly in sync: sometimes they bite, sometimes they build tension, and sometimes they open up spaces steeped in melancholy. The bass is elastic and playful on the title track, obsessive on “DOG”, hypnotic on “Blue Oblivion” and downright danceable on “Dance”. The drums alternate between punk attack, ritualistic rhythms and the heavy mid-tempos that dominate the album’s most emotional sections.
But much of the band’s strength lies in the vocals. Yasmin’s raspy voice perfectly complements the more melodic tones of Poppy and Zoë, and together they carry the songs from anger to vulnerability and from screams to whispers without ever losing that distinct Grandmas House sound. On “The Table”, a disastrous dinner becomes the setting for a breakup: no dessert, no explanations, no second chances. Walking away does not make it hurt any less, especially when it might be the last time they see each other. Sometimes setting boundaries means losing someone along the way.
The lyrics, in fact, are one of the album’s greatest strengths. Baby You’re A Winner charts an existential crisis in which love first appears as a refuge, as a gaze capable of reminding you of your worth, but gradually becomes entangled with obsession, dependence and the fear that the other person might leave. “DOG” traps that obsession in a cycle that never stops turning; “Blue Oblivion” makes it almost physical, lodged in the head and the lungs; while “Taxidermy” and “Soaked” push that fear to its extreme: either you hold on to someone forever or lose yourself completely inside them.
“Dance” sits at the centre of this journey. Driven by a sensual bassline, restless percussion and almost mystical brass, it turns pain into movement. Dancing becomes a way of recapturing an absent person’s gaze, as though moving might make the loss easier to bear.
But the album is not only concerned with relationships and grief. “Next Big Hit (Choo Choo)” is a stroke of genius, blending garage punk and mechanical grunge to mock the machinery of the music industry. It sells you the idea that the train will take you “to a better place”, when in reality you are tied to the tracks. That almost childish “choo choo” turns the promise of music-industry success into a wonderfully grim joke.
The final stretch of the album becomes more atmospheric and painful. “I Miss That House” yearns for a home, a community and a way of belonging. On “How It Is”, the repeated mantra of acceptance clashes with a world still full of traces of that person, from the reserved table to the belongings by the door.
With its elegiac folk and ceremonial atmosphere, “Spring” is the perfect finale. It does not say that the pain will disappear, only that another season can follow winter and that, somehow, life can continue even when that person never returns.
The hardest part is choosing favourites, because any of these twelve songs could easily work as a single. Grandmas House have established themselves with a magical record that will undoubtedly rank among the essential albums of 2026. And perhaps the real victory offered by Baby You’re A Winner is learning to see yourself through the eyes of the people who love you and realising that, even when you are broken, exhausted or grieving, you still matter. So straighten your tie, hold your head high and get ready to be a winner.
Listen to Baby You’re A Winner in full.
Connect with Grandmas House on Instagram | TikTok | YouTube