If you individually trace the lads from Her Parents back to their previous projects, you would discover bands like Dananananaykroyd, Stairs to Korea, and Internet Forever; three delicious UK indie pop outfits. One would assume that thir Gobot-like metamorphosis into Her Parents would produce something within the same genre. Nay Nay says the beast. Physical Release introduces the world to Her Parent’s unique brand of fuck-off-flannel-punk. The four piece trade in their sugar pop melodies for an urge to break stuff – at least that’s what they literally did on the video for ‘Don’t Know’, a cracking song about, well, I don’t know exactly, but containing a vocal charge that not only becomes contagious but also provides a good excuse to tell someone off. “I don’t fucking know!”

Christopher Alcxxk, Sean Clothier, Calum Gunn and Vilhjálmur Pétur combine their powers to produce a hard hitting debut album that features 11 tracks in just under 17 minutes; true punk spirit. It’s a bit of a hard sell at first knowing their history, though Dananananaykroyd provide brief flashes of punk-esque motifs from time to time, but after a minute of the opening track ‘Win the Lottery, Kick the Fuck out of Your House’, your are transported into an underworld of anger and rage combined with seductive punk melodies. Her Parents throw “fuck” around like 5 cent candies on parade day, but its all good and it serves to put people in the right mood. Turns out they are pretty serious about being seriously hardcore, and they pull it off without a hitch.

The band are only serious to a point. One of the many highlights on the album is an electrified, fuzzed-out satirical tribute to Bon Iver’s lead singer. ‘Justin Vernon’ is a manic one minute and 26 seconds with a chorus of “Didn’t he!” answering the track’s accusatory allegations against the indie-pop singer, like “He slaved all women folk, didn’t he”. Her Parents slow it down between verses to declare “he is haunting me” while the pace slows to a demonic crawl. It’s a fantastic song, that is reasonably representative of the album, although not all of its tracks are fun and games.

‘There’s a Body’ begins with the awareness of a dead person in a dumpster which later ends up in a briefcase. The story is told with aggressive accompaniment and massively larynx-abusing vocals. Other highlights include the unrelenting ‘One Five Six Zeroes Four Twenty ‘ and the whiplash affect caused by the sharpness of ‘There’s a Man’.

It is difficult to make a bad punk album, but incredibly challenging to make one that stands out. Her Parents have managed to do so, providing memorable hooks and an energy to the whole ordeal that feels vibrant and raw, succeeding even if their appearance and previous projects might have suggested more of a bubblegum history than full throttle punk.

Listen to Physical Release