Fightmilk - Contender

“I’ve fucked it, sorry,” Fightmilk singer Lily Rae can be heard saying within the first five seconds of this, their second album. Presumably, it was left in as a scene-setter, on the off-chance that anybody had been expecting a particularly self-serious effort from a band named after a faeces-infused alcoholic protein shake “for bodyguards, by bodyguards” from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Their 2018 debut, ‘Not with That Attitude’, was a breezy, Britpop-inflected affair - pleasant, if unremarkable. On ‘Contender’, with the addition of former Wolf Girl member Healey on bass, a subtler expansion is underway, both in the scope of their sound and in the manner in which they’ve allowed more of their personality to seep into the songs. Sonically, the Fightmilk palette has broadened to include pleasantly melodic nineties alt-rock (‘I’m Starting to Think You Don’t Even Want to Go to Space’), effervescent pop-punk (‘Banger #3’, the ego-puncturing ‘You Are Not the Universe’) and, perhaps improbably, occasional tender reflection, with ‘If You Had a Sister…’, lyrically vulnerable and musically tentative until it explodes into a climactic, freewheeling guitar solo. There’s wit, warmth and - crucially - self-awareness to Fightmilk’s lyrics, which reflect on love and life through a particularly droll prism. ‘Contender’ is a marked step forwards from one of Britain’s more endearingly idiosyncratic indie rock outfits.