Alicia Bognanno has a gift for crafting a phrase that captures the ear: “Been praying for my period all week,” she sings on Trying; “I remember getting too fucked up / And I remember throwing up in your car,” offers I Remember. Would that the rest of the group had a gift for melodies as memorable: the Nashville band’s debut is a grab-bag of early-90s alt-rock styles that sounded tired by the mid-90s – and haven’t got any fresher since. I Remember is a bit punky; Too Tough is a bit slacker; Trying is a bit loud-quiet-loud, which would be fine if they had the songcraft of Superchunk or Breeders or Pixies or Sebadoh or Pavement, but they don’t.
It’s not that Bully are diffident – they attack the songs with enough vim to clean a bathroom – it’s more that their clothes have been borrowed without being customised in any way. That said, there’s been plenty of enthusiasm for Feels Like, with reviewers falling over themselves to heap praise on it, so maybe those who don’t remember this stuff first time round feel the same delight in its recreation as Bognanno does.
