Gilla Band
Most Normal
Release Date: Oct 7, 2022
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Rough Trade
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Album Review: Most Normal by Gilla Band
Exceptionally Good, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 4.5
The Dublin outfit fka Girl Band’s compelling, magnetic third album is utterly weird, often brutal, and mostly disorientating In the words of comedy icon Alan Partridge: “they’ve re-badged it, you fool!”. Dublin’s Gilla Band were previously known as Girl Band, a name which some saw as a bit problematic, considering they consisted of four men, with not a woman in sight. So a re-badging, as Alan would put it, was called for.
Based on rating 8/10
Dublin quartet Gilla Band have been making cathartic uneasy listening for over a decade now (previously under the name Girl Band), and their third album, Most Normal, continues where both its predecessors left off. "I spent all my money on shit clothes," declares singer Dara Kiely on lead single "Eight Fivers," while claiming "I can dress up in plastic bags" on the industrial clatter of "Bin Liner Fashion. " Clothes get a mention again too on the woozy "Red Polo Neck" and although Most Normal is every bit as obtuse as one has come to expect from Gilla Band, it represents more of a short sharp shock than either 2019's The Talkies or 2015's Holding Hands With Jamie, yet remains every bit as exhilarating.
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