cumgirl8 - the 8th cumming

Words like ‘authenticity’ and ‘relatability’ might get bandied around all the time in modern music parlance, but for true honesty let us look no further than ‘uti’: the batshit centrepiece of cumgirl8’s latest release. Amid repeated chants of “fml” and “ow” comes the sort of fidgety, uncomfortable ambience that will have listeners wincing in solidarity. Forget Taylor Swift, this is the painful sound of the real female experience. Unsurprisingly for a group whose entire branding is rooted in sex-positive piss-taking, the rest of ‘The 8th Cumming’ is hardly Radio 2 fodder either. Opener ‘Karma Police’ swaps Radiohead melancholia for frenetic pacing and warbling vocals about “mental masturbation”, while ‘ahhhh!hhhh! (i don’t wanna go)’ nods to the goth pulse of Siouxsie Sioux or, to update the idea, the icy stabs of Heartworms. Indeed, much of the record roots itself in the shadier, more electronic underbelly of the ‘80s: a Cure guitar line here, a Kraftwerk nod there, all twisted together by the kind of spidery vocals that arrive like Warpaint at Halloween. ‘The 8th Cumming’ might have humour within it, but there’s also substance to be found among all the bodily substances.