Album review: Girlschool “WTFortyfive?”
The English ladies in Girlschool are back with a terrific 14th studio album. 45 years on and Girlschool still kicks ass.
Legendary British rockers Girlschool celebrate 45 years as a band with a fab new studio album. Original members Kim McAuliffe (lead vocals and guitar) and Denise Dufort (drums) are still at it. The current line-up of the band also includes bassist Tracey Lamb (who first played in Girlschool in 1983 and has been in and out of the band ever since) and Jackie Chambers, “the new girl”, who has been in the band for close to a quarter of a century now. “WTFortyfive?” is the band’s 14th studio album and it is an instant Girlschool classic. It is as good as the band’s classic early 80s albums “Demolition”, “Hit and Run” and “Screaming Blue Murder”. The band is now in fine form and the songs are excellent. As always with Girlschool, we get a wonderful mix of metal, hard rock and plenty of pop hooks. It is guitar-driven music and it is excellent. This is trademark Girlschool music. It is early 80s metal, but timeless and yet fresh sounding. The stand-out performer among a fine line-up of musicians is Jackie Chambers and her guitar which keeps this band of seasoned school girls rocking. Immediate standout tracks for me include “It Is What It Is”, “Bump in the Night”, “Invisible Killer” and “Into the Night”. Girlschool has always been a bit of a party band and on the new album they acknowledge that with the great-fun song “Party”. There are some notable guests on the album. Alcatrazz’s guitar maestro Joe Stump appears on the terrific “Are You Ready?” and on “Born to Raise Hell” we get contributions from Saxon’s Biff Byford, Motörhead’s Phil Campbell and Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan.
This is a great album and I am hoping that many of these new songs will make it into the band’s legendary live shows. Sure, they have a fantastic back catalogue, but now they have a bunch of great new songs too.
Girlschool’s album “WTFortyfive?” will be released on 28th July via Silver Lining Music.
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