Album Review: Hands Off Gretel – I Want The World

From the first scuzzed-out riff of opening track Kiss Me Girl onwards, this album is a rocket-propelled white knuckle ride that barely pauses for breath. It’s a brutally melodic and urgent testament to the power of retaining control of your own creativity and ploughing your own furrow. Pledgemusic‘s failings notwithstanding, self-financing the production and distribution of your own product gives unique and idiosyncratic artists like Lauren Tate‘s Hands Off Gretel a licence to please themselves. And us. I Want The World, as its title suggests, sends the clear message that no fucks whatever have been given. The result is a brilliant, vivid and confident record that dives joyously in and out of musical styles without losing an ounce of intensity or integrity.

You can find reference points and influences if you must. At times, this record reminded me of Bel Air-era Guano Apes, fronted by an angry Pink. But that’s really irrelevant, because Hands Off Gretel is uniquely individual. While the grungy power never falters (Kiss Me Girl, Big Boy, I Want The World and Alien), it’s in the quieter and more introspective moments (It’s My Fault, Freaks Like Us, Milk and My Friend Said) that you get a real sense of the underlying musicality and, damn it, sensitivity. There’s a voyeuristic intensity to the lyrics too. It’s like a furtive peek into that girl you like’s most secret diary in which she is confessional and open about her ambitions. On that note, Lauren Tate has attracted criticism for that confident – brash even – presentation. Screw the haters, this is rock music and a perfect antidote to the trend for introspective and sensitive Emo boys being all self-deprecating and wistful.

This is a record with massive balls. It will knock you down and then stroke your head. If you’re not battered and a little bit aroused by this record, you’re probably already dead. Lauren wants the world. I say we let her have it. 

I Want The World can be pre-ordered physically here and digitally here