Release Date: 23 February 2018
Song Count: 15
Duration: 50 minutes, 43 seconds
Rating: 7.4/10
Description:
Song Count: 15
Duration: 50 minutes, 43 seconds
Rating: 7.4/10
Description:
Here we have an interesting record: All at Once, the seventh and penultimate album of the punk rock band Screaming Females. The reason you just read the word "penultimate" there is that the group, which formed in 2005 out of a trio - consisting of only one woman, for the record, so if anything there is only one "screaming female", but I digress - in a high school in New Brunswick, has since been officially disbanded, releasing one last album after this one in 2023, their final active year. There is still music being created by the now past members of Screaming Females, however, most notably from the lead singer and guitarist Marissa Paternoster under her long-time solo project Noun. Pretty neat.
As for this record left behind by the band, it follows a generally quite upbeat indie rock style, decorating its tracks with melodies sounded out by Paternoster's vocals as well as the guitar sounds and basslines whilst not sacrificing the grit and punk edge that gives the music an intriguing tinge to listen for. In a way, it seems quite reminiscent of some other punk rock acts I have covered on here in the past in terms of sound and style; however, the sense of anger that radiates out of some of the songs here is significantly more controlled and almost subtle by comparison. While this means that, combined with the later release date, there is a far cleaner and partially more professional sound permeating these 15 tracks, the trade-off of a lot of them ending up mostly less memorable than their counterparts also becomes relatively evident. There are, of course, tracks that break away from this, such as "Black Moon", "Soft Domination" and especially "Fantasy Lens", a particularly high energy four-minute rundown about succumbing to the male gaze and being an object of fantasy, as its title suggests.
The closest comparison I can pull to All at Once that has hit the front page here would be the debut of Cistamatic; however, as stated earlier, while this record may have the superior sound mixing of the two, it comparatively lacks in melodies and hooks that stick in one's head for longer than the songs' runtimes, bar for the aforementioned exceptions. This, however, is far from a major deterrent when it comes to the quality of this album overall, as there is still a lot to enjoy here, both with the vocal and instrumental performances - Paternoster, Dougherty and Abbate absolutely kill it in their respective roles. While an album I may be slightly less likely to return to except for its biggest highlights, it is clear that this was made with a lot of passion and fun from those involved, and for that, it deserves a shout-out for sure. Plus, it's overall a pretty good listen.