M(H)AOL: ‘ATTACHMENT STYLES’ ALBUM REVIEW
With punchy tonality, dissonant instrumentals and raw, abrasive vocals, ‘Attachment Styles’ is an important piece of political art in post-punk form.
CW: This review contains references to sexual violence.
Having built a reputation for producing hard-edged, discordant post-punk that is unapologetically political, M(h)aol (pronounced ‘male’) have firmly established themselves as a band with purpose on their first full length project. 'Attachment Styles’ takes guitar distortion to the max, with raw and urgent lyrics cutting through fuzzy instrumentals. Featuring a collection of immensely personal songs, the album is a rage-filled, nihilistic, yet empowering record that takes inspiration from the psychological theory of Attachment Styles to probe the ways in which emotional relationships inform who we are and how we relate to one another.
Artwork by Zoe Greenway
Consisting of Róisín Nic Ghearailt (vocals), Constance Keane (drums), Jamie Hyland (bass and production), Zoe Greenway (bass), and Sean Nolan (guitar), the five-piece are spread between Dublin, London and Bristol. ‘Attachment Styles’ sees the band in a scaled back setting; to capture the live element, it was recorded in one small room with minimal tech, resulting in an at times unnerving cacophony of distorted guitars and clashing drums.
Opening track, ‘Asking For It’ was released as the first single back in 2021 to raise money for Women’s Aid. It’s blunt, angry, and immensely personal, confronting the misogyny and victim-blaming inherent in ‘r*pe culture’. Simmering upon a surface of fuzz-driven guitars and gritty bass, Róisín’s rhetorical and borderline satirical vocals centre around the farcical yet scarily commonplace notion of a sexual assault victim ‘asking for it’. The album’s production compliments Róisín’s bleak lyrics, written to try and process her own experiences. It’s muddied and dissonant, sporadically crescendoing into sonic chaos to reflect the violence of the song’s theme.
Photo credit: Naomi Williams
‘Bored Of Men’ and ‘No one Ever Talks To Us’ follow suit with bursts of anti-melodic noise, yet Róisín remains eloquent as she scrutinises the banality of society’s sexualisation of women. Similarly, ‘Cowboy Honey’ addresses misogynistic constructions of ageing - a theme which is echoed instrumentally by drums which tap like a sinister ticking clock. ‘Bisexual Anxiety’ epitomises the album’s more empowering side, offering a more defiant and self-accepting attitude towards queerness and identity that’s typified by the lyrics: “I shouldn’t have to do anything for you to accept me / but not doing anything feels like a betrayal to no one but myself”. Bringing the album to a triumphant conclusion is closer ‘Period Sex’, which celebrates a reclamation of sexual power and intimacy over a more optimistic, clean bassline.
From start to finish, ‘Attachment Styles’ is a journey of healing and self-acceptance; it’s a feminist exploration of queerness, relationships and identity that throws an unapologetic middle finger up to gender-based violence and societal expectations of femininity.
‘Attachment Styles’ is out via TULLE Collective now.