L7 — Bricks Are Heavy (review)

L7 — Bricks Are Heavy album cover Album · 1992 · Heavy Alternative Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Vim Fuego
What do you know about L7? C’mon, what’s the first thing that pops into your head? It’s four girls right? Well done. Makes no difference to the music though. Get past that simple, yet distracting fact, and what are you left with? Well, it’s dirty, grungy punk/rock.

Far too much was made of the “all-girl” gimmick when this album first hit the shelves. This band was no gimmick. It’s not like L7 was a manufactured band, like Vixen or Cycle Sluts From Hell, nor were any of the members even vaguely pretty or sexy. What this band did which very few other all girl bands of the time did was play their own instruments and write their own music. Influenced by west coast punk and the blossoming grunge scene, in particular Nirvana’s ‘Bleach’ album, L7 wrote simple songs with big riffs, pithy lyrics and gang vocals. Thankfully, all four band members have deep voices, so there’s no annoying banshee shrieks here. If anything, they all sing flat.

OK, so the female thing does raise its head occasionally. “Diet Pill” in particular is very pre-menstrual, bloated, lethargic and cranky. “One More Thing” is like a lingering migraine which just won’t fuck off, droning through your skull. “Everglade” targets big idiots in mosh pits who do their best to hurt people instead of just enjoying the music. “Wargasm” features a sample of the world’s most annoying woman, Yoko Ono, screaming her head off, and deals with the male preoccupation with fighting and violence.

It’s hard to pick a highlight. “Shitlist” and “Wargasm” stick out because of the anger, “Mr Integrity” sounds like The Cramps on steroids, while “Slide” and “This Ain’t Pleasure” race by at high velocity.

Infinitely superior to the two L7 albums which followed, ‘Bricks Are Heavy’ is one of the few albums of its era to successfully combine punk and grunge, and maintain the vigour of the former and still retain the bleak realism of the latter.
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Vim Fuego wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I loved L7 back in the day. I got a free long sleeve t-shirt with Hungry For Stink. I wore it til it was little more than a loosely connected collection of holes.
Necrotica wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Nice work, dude. Such a great band :]
Unitron wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Good review, I really like this album, this album definitely has a good mix of grunge, punk, and even metal at times. 'This Ain't Pleasure' is probably my favorite.

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