Blondshell Albums

Biggest Influences:

Liz Phiar, Smashing Pumpkins, Cranberries, Juliana Hatfield, Tracy Champan

2023

Blondshell - 96%

Blondshell aka Sabrina Teitelbaum is the revelation of the year, a singer-songwriter who is actually a part of a hard rock band, and not a pretender the throne like so many others of her time making music that matters. Produced by Yves Rothmann, the album is a supreme work of art. It begins deceivingly, as opener “Veronica Mars” is 1990’s themed hard rock at its punchiest and “Kiss City” is a grower that does build into an interesting crescendo. With these two opening songs one would think the album is yet another depressed singer/songwriter who might make a couple of interesting songs and then fade away; but think again. The album really gets interesting with “Olympus”, as song that contains layers and layers of supreme depth, a song which not only has a winning chorus and repeating mantra of “fire burn” harmonized by multi-vocals, but take one listen to the bridge of the song and it truly blows you out of the water. An interesting mix of top-notch production and lyrical depth, “Olympus” is the creepy, mysterious epic we didn’t know we needed and one of rock music's all-time great anthems.

The album stays amazingly entertaining from then on: the ringing guitars of “Sober Together” tackling a wisdom of a person twice her age (check out that chilled out ending and angelic backing vocals); the Liz Phair vulgar indie chug of “Sepsis” whose lyrics are often hilarious and perhaps satirical of songs with relationship subject matter; a repeating pounding in using the Juliana Hatfield sonic template in “Tarmac”; the new twisting tale of revenge fantasy in the sublimely catchy “Salad”. Best of all, “Joiner” is the anthem our generation needs, a new version of The Smashing Pumpkins “1979” with its amazing optimism in these times of trial and tribulation. The closing “Dangerous” contains layers and layers of overlapping lightly strummed electric guitars, the words ebb and flow and out, the design of the thing is hard to decipher but I know I love it.

The album alternates between disgusted, sweet, mourning, and coming-of-age, eventually reaching a sort of blinding catharsis that so many bands of our era lack. I’ve heard the album heralded as a return of grunge rock, and I don’t know if I would go that far. It’s hard to put Teitelbaum in a niche because this album opens so many possible doors, none of the songs reach more than about 5 minutes in length but so much ground is covered and the listener hangs on every word once they learn them. It is an album that requires your utmost attention, just like anything truly worth listening to. I hope Blondshell is remembered for this amazing debut, as rock music doesn’t get much better than this in the 2020’s.

Best Songs: Olympus, Joiner, Salad, Tarmac