Milk Teeth’s debut album ‘Vile Child’ was an undeniable highlight of 2016’s musical outputs. It was uncompromising and energetic, intelligent and almost alarmingly honest. What their new EP ‘Be Nice’ suggests is that, back then, they’d barely even gotten started.

This latest release is a diverse yet cohesive collection, showing off the brilliance of each member of the band. Lead single ‘Owning Your Okayness’ is seriously anger-fuelled, but packed with sonic sunniness. ‘Prism’ sounds almost like it could have been on ‘Vile Child’, with its prominent tones of 90s grunge. It sets itself apart from earlier pickings – still growling, but more polished. Speaking of growling, ‘Fight Skirt’ is snarling, relentlessness and destined to be a live favourite. I can already see the pits and pogo-esque bouncing to the shouts of “So make up your mind / Where do you draw the line?” It’s the closing song of the EP, ‘Hibernate’, which stands out the most. It’s 4 minutes and 9 seconds of spine-tingling vulnerability from frontwoman Becky Blomfield, whose vocals are lamenting and lyrics painfully reflective. This is something the band manage to carry out better than any other, because they’re not pushing emotion into something empty. It’s pouring out of them so much that listening to this song feels like bleeding, too uncomfortable to feel cathartic. But maybe that’s what will make this song most liberating – for its creators and its audience – with time. That discomfort will serve us more than any platitudes about moving on and forgiveness could ever manage.

Some people might be disappointed with ‘Be Nice’, disappointed that Milk Teeth are ‘less heavy’ than they used to be. Some people might listen to this and call it ‘selling out’. We think these people are wrong.

Sophia Simon-Bashall

 

Photo Courtesty of Music Weekly: http://www.musicweek.com/radar/read/on-the-radar-milk-teeth/068719