Below The Waste is a shaped and hewn mood from Goat Girl

From Neil Young to Marvin Gaye and Galaxie 500, consumers will always need records to throw on when you’re feeling a certain way, but don’t want to do anything about it.

That’s not to downplay the variety Below The Waste has to offer – there’s plenty of that. Rather, this is to say that the album is a mood, something to sink into. The songs are layered, dense, and heavily textured. Indeed the title is more than fitting – Goat Girl feel as though they’re digging in as deep as they can on almost every track, stripping elements away or adding to the mix until what they’ve honed is so much better than what they started with. The best cuts on the LP are shaped and hewn from initially simple ideas into gems.

After the table-setting haze of opener “reprise”, things start hot with lead single “ride around”. It’s a grungy exercise in tension and release, reminiscent of Stories From The City-era PJ Harvey. Under Lottie Pendlebury’s detached vocals, the muddy guitars drop out them thump their way to the fore. We’re kept at arm’s length as Goat Girl try on and discard ideas before settling at last on the final movement. The melodies soar and pile up as Pendlebury locks into a hook – “Shall we go / Ride around / Hit the floor / Dawn is out”. They commit to this and milk it for all it’s worth, the song finally figuring out where it needs to be

The heavy chugging vibe sets a tone for much of the record, but Goat Girl flex their creative muscle elsewhere. The slowcore-like “tonight” is a highlight. It’s languorous and woozy with an almost uncomfortably intimate sound, the guitar’s chord changes sending the sharp scraping of strings right down the speaker. A gentle violin echos the dragging, croaking vocals, and the bass sets the whole tune off with a hot, almost clammy sensation, somewhere between discomfort and sultriness.

The more experimental “jump sludge” is another point of intrigue. Almost entirely instrumental, it’s built around the interplaying riffs of bass and guitar, playing insistent riffs that feel just a touch out of step with one another. Goat Girl have referenced Deerhoof as an inspiration on Below The Waste, and that playfulness with just a soupçon of tension works wonders here. They play themselves to the point of near-frenzy before everything drops away.

Not every disparate choice is quite so effective. “tcnc” is an attempt to deliver something different and it achieves on that front, but the brash blasts of synth are abrasive rather than exciting and, because it’s a post-punk album in 2024, we’re obliged to sit through at least one bout of talk-singing. It’s bold but not especially interesting, though Rosy Jones’ pulverising drums rarely sound better. “motorway” makes a detour into moody synth-pop that isn’t the band’s forte. With the compressed wall of noise, there’s far less texture for them to play around in.

At its best, Below The Waste boasts songs to sink fully into. The best track may be “where’s ur <3”, in particular the final minute or so. After a minimalist build, the title becomes a chant, a plea for reason or mercy. The denouement is all release, an expression of pain but an immense relief to finally get it said. The guitars are immense but bright and sprightly. The record takes one final swerve with closer “wasting”, a six minute wave of intensity that starts out like doom metal and ends with a full-on brass band.

Goat Girl push the boat out while maintaining, for the most part, a considered and deliberate mood across the 48 minute run time, and the few pitfalls are due to ideas that didn’t quite coalesce more than anything. The finest tracks can feel familiar only to grab you and hold you in entirely surprising ways.