Summer CannibalsFull Of It
Kill Rock Stars / Redeye

- The third album for Summer Cannibals is a notable change of direction for the band after their two previous, 2013’s No Make Up and 2015’s Show Us Your Mind, both released on their own record label based in Portland, Oregon. Full of It is the first album Summer Cannibals have released with another Portland-based indie rock label, Kill Rock Stars. Not coincidently, you might remember, Kill Rocks Stars is also home to the recordings of Sleater-Kinney and Bikini Kill. In fact, Kill Rock Stars president Portia Sabin has said “Summer Cannibals has taken us back to our roots”, in reference to the fierce female-fronted bands of KRS' early days. Summer Cannibals is a band fully geared towards showing off their lead vocalist Jessica Boudreaux and Full of It blares female rage, sarcasm, hope and disgust. She is joined for this third recording by the returning backup vocalist and rhythm guitarist Marc Swart as well as new additions Devon Shirley on drums and Jenny Logan on bass.

Between albums, it seems that Swart isn't doing quite as much of the musical composition and, along with the change of bass and drums that has switched the flavour from salt and vinegar to amphetamines, if that says anything about intensity. Full of It is often twice as angry as either of their previous albums, and the lyrics become the focus of the listener’s attention much more so than even the blistering guitars. For example, Take It As It Comes has a chorus guitar line very similar to some of Metz' hammering riffs, which seems a little slack if you can shake Boudreaux’s vocals shifting blame on something else. There is an overwhelming negative energy welling in most of the vocals, a snotty attitude mixed with a feeling of deep cynicism and a very real ‘I’ve-just-about-had-enough-of-your-shit’ vibe, like I Wanna Believe’s doomed optimism, Say My Name’s call for recognition and Talk Over Me’s firm message to men who feel entitled to harass women. Talk Over Me’s central lyric ‘I’m not a bitch / It’s just preference / I’d rather not be harassed’ is direct enough for any old meathead to understand.

Swart and the two newbies provide stadium-level punk rock turned up with double-layered guitars and flailing drums although it leaves out some of the subtler rock’n’roll style elements that were so excellent on their previous records. Full of It’s last track, Simple Life, is possibly the best song on the album. After ten cuts of attitude and strangely sour optimism, Simple Life ponders settling down and violently rejects it for ‘Something bigger / Something real’. Boudreaux doesn’t know what this bigger and realer thing is, but like a lot of her contemporary twenty-somethings she’s still betting it’s out there, which should keep those Summer Cannibals fans hanging on. 

This album may not be quite as sonically pleasing as their previous two, in fact changing sounds so quickly makes it hard to catch up sometimes. It is, however, a leap in the right direction and it may be big enough to bring them to Australian shores in the not too distant future. If you need to know today, Full of It is for fans of White LungGirlpoolKathleen Hanna and all of that good riot grrl stuff. If your rage-tank is running low, this is definitely the place to fill up.

- Matt Hall.

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