Since the debut of her first album, “Feels Like”, in 2015, Alicia Bognanno (has been releasing music under the moniker of Bully) has been delivering music that achieves a balance between abrasiveness and vulnerability, raucous and serene.
On “Lucky For You”, she presents her most authentic and assured sense of self. Whereas on earlier releases, her voice remained timid despite bouts of characteristically Bully screaming and tracks were characterized by humble DIY presenting production, on “Lucky For You”, Bully steps forward with her most refined yet unrestrained musicality to date.
Out of the gate, the opening track of the album, “All I Do,” serves as a bold taste of what’s to follow. A ringing and childishly sweet guitar melody juxtaposed with a punchy, compressed drum beat lays the groundwork for Bully’s rich vocalization to shine through at the forefront of the song, a point further proven by the songs that follow.
Moving fluidly from track to track, the album thematically and sonically makes its way to a greater point—an epiphany that feels discovered at the end of the album, even if you aren’t quite sure what it is. With each track, a sense of solidarity between Bognanno and the listener is felt, even when there is ambiguity in her lyrical content. The unrestraint in her performance on the album calls the listener to engage with the song, to lean in and relate in whatever way that calls to them.
On some songs, Bognanno is incredibly blunt about the emotions she is experiencing, leaving little room for interpretation on an array of subjects that weigh on her psyche including breakups, the loss of her beloved dog, struggles with addiction as well as the state of our society and her anger towards it. On others, she sings from a place of vagueness, although continually channeling the feelings and thought processes that come with loss and grieving, which ties the album together with an overarching theme.
The lyrics find that perfect balance between poetically specific and purposefully vague. On “How Will I Know,” she sings, “Feeling melancholy when I start to think of you gotta get out of my head, find something else to do, because there’s no point obsessing over what I would’ve changed, save a couple of things I wish I said but I refrained.” Within the ambiguity of that line, she sings them in such a way that feels prophetic and revolutionary, however generalized or commonplace the feelings she is speaking on may seem.
With more grit and vulnerability, on “Ms. America” she sings, “I guess everything falls apart, finding hope in a broken heart, all I wanted was a daughter, try my best to raise her right, but the whole worlds caught on fire, and I don’t wanna teach a kid to fight for you and for me too,” allowing herself to bare more honesty and point directly towards personal experience with a poetic edge.
In the same way she balances two opposing ideas within the construction of her lyrics, Bognanno is also able to do so sonically. Viewing the album in its entirety, Bognanno balances a tenderness reminiscent of popular ’90’s vocalists such as Liz Phair and Tori Amos while packing a punch with her coarse punk vocalization. The specific guitar tone and production of the instrumentation creates a noisy and compressed sound that for one, brings her vocals to the forefront and two, and creates a specific soundscape characterized by an intentional raucous garage rock sound.
Shining with catchy bass lines that pique attention, as well as unique drum patterns, purposefully noisy guitar distortion, and subtly layered vocal tracks, Bully is able to achieve a fully formed sonic landscape with cohesive yet thrilling elements scattered throughout.
“Lucky For You” is Bully’s declaration to the world that she is unafraid to let her deepest insecurities and most painstaking experiences bleed out in her music. It’s a fully polished work that distinguishes itself from other albums in its genre, on the basis that Bully was able to present a sense of pure genuineness on it, a characteristic of music that is often an anomaly today.
Bully the musical project led by Alicia Bognanno — visited The Current studio in late September 2023 while out on tour in support of the band’s latest album, “Lucky For You.” Watch the three-song performance above.
Despite its tinge of grunge instrumentation and full-throated riot grrrl vocals, on Bully’s “Lucky For You“, Alicia Bognanno hews closer to the lesser-known Seattle female-fronted bands, with a straight-up rock ‘n’ roll backbone like Kim Warnick of the Fastbacks and Carrie Akre of Hammerbox and Goodness. The album rips into high gear with a declaration of being fed up and “burned-out wasting tears/ I am done” on opener “All I Do”; detours through the melancholy of mourning with “A Love Profound”; gets anthemic about break-ups with fellow Nashville artist Sophia Regina Allison of Soccer Mommy on “Lose You”; and closes with the Red Aunts-esque short and sweet punk “All This Noise” that encapsulates the media view of our fucked up world by asking, “What else is there to do/ When you can’t escape the news?”
From the album ‘Lucky For You’ out on Sub Pop Records on June 2nd , 2023.
The Fat Angel Sings 