Music Review: Bully

Before founding Bully, guitarist and songwriter Alicia Bognanno interned at Chicago’s Electrical Audio Studio for Steve Albini, the noteworthy alternative rock engineer who worked with such 1990s heavy hitters as Nirvana and the Pixies.

That connection is germane because the Nashville band specialises in a rugged, direct rock sound whose buzzing guitars evoke the grunge era.

The band has released the top-flight new Losing on SubPop, the Seattle label that was once home to many of the bands that have shaped Bognanno’s writing.

Brawny, bruising songs like Kills to be Resistant and Not the Way pack an immediate, personal punch and eschew too-cool-for-school disengagement as Bognanno works herself into righteous rages that are sometimes directed outwards and sometimes at herself. An impressive step forward.