My little Panasonic portable tape deck churned and felt hot to the touch. Tumbling inside was a cassette that my Mom would later find, disapprove of & throw in the trash. The voice in my ears had obviously experienced a pain that I didn’t fully understand, but I could totally relate to. In that moment, the words didn’t matter near as much as the passionate delivery. I get that same feeling listening to Bully’s first full length Feels Like. The raw vocals and bass guitar that reaches out to move your head coupled with great melodies make this album super easy to get into. It’s familiar territory to someone who grew up in the era of grunge and fuzzed-out bands of the 90’s. Bully is a four piece from Nashville, Tennessee made up of Stewart Copeland (drums) Clayton Parker (guitar) Reece Lazarus (bass) and Alicia Bognanno (vocals, guitar and songwriting) and here to rock your dang face off if you don’t sing along.
Much like when I saw Bully basically pile-drive an audience at SXSW this year, the lead-in track “I Remember” holds absolutely nothing back. Bognanno’s voice seems to be reaching across the expanse to grab hold of your dumb long-sleeve polo (that you think looks great with shorts) to pull you closer to explain just what in the hell hurts so dang bad. The echoed-out bliss of the recorded vocals makes me visualize a person standing alone in a room yelling at photographs. The delivery is full of passion and one of my favorite tracks off Feels Like. I mean, watch this video of Bognanno recording the vocals for the song. Watch it ALL the way to the end, after the song is over as she says “Yeah” to either the engineer or herself like “Yeah, that was intense and I need a minute”
Bully has figured out how to draw a listener in with great first lines “I’ll never sleep with you again. I don’t want you broke over me” from “Sharktooth” and or keep your attention with off-kilter songs like “Milkman” which ends surprisingly with the line “I used to be a shark!” I really love the front and center bass guitar tone on “Trying” matched with the repeating screaming of the word “trying” like a hand pounding against a wall. I think that’s a great example of the smartness of Bully’s overall approach and delivery. This is a band that seems much more mature than the back catalog would suggest. Maybe that is due to Bognanno’s education and experience as a sound engineer or just that the stars aligned to bring together the right mix of musicians. Whatever it is, Bully has it and I will never let my Mom throw away this album.
Rating: 4/5
Find Bully all over the Internet:
Website, Facebook, Bandcamp, Twitter, Instagram, iTunes
Photo Credits: Header Image = Pooneh Ghana | Live Image = Lucien Cyr