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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
They’re already the finest live band in the country. Most Normal proves they are also the best in the studio.
90
The Dublin outfit fka Girl Band’s compelling, magnetic third album is utterly weird, often brutal, and mostly disorientating.
90
The band’s gift for continually conjuring up new forms of auditory mayhem is the real star of the show.
84
The Irish band’s unrelenting third album, made with an arcade of pedals and processors, surges with electricity. Inside all of its noise is an indignant, surreal mania that gives it a twisted pop soul.
80
Although Most Normal is every bit as obtuse as one has come to expect from Gilla Band, it represents more of a short sharp shock than either 2019’s The Talkies or 2015’s Holding Hands With Jamie, yet remains every bit as exhilarating.
80
Uneasy and unpredictable, yet invigorating.
80
It's typically confrontational, throwing the listener face first into their wall of noise with some spectacular excursions into how to make naturally rhythmic instruments sound ugly, aggressive, unpleasant and ultimately cathartic.
80
Gilla Band are in experimental mood on new album Most Normal, with an overwhelmingly high hit rate.
80
When you stick on your headphones and press play on this music, you cannot help but feel welcomed into their wonderfully strange world.
80
‘Most Normal’ is Gilla Band burrowing into the surrealism of dreams and all their befuddling peculiarities.
73
Frontperson Dara Kiely’s language less resembles the mumblings of a person disconnected from reality than those of someone whose anxieties are entirely relatable.
60
The results are sometimes too meta to be particularly satisfying, but when but coheres - as on the bracing, static-smeared "Backwash" - it's worth the effort.
60
Budget-price corporations such as Lidl and Ryanair take a mauling, amid a sonic barrage which occasionally coalesces into pleasing punk-funk but mostly glories in making lap-steel sound like a cement mixer.
60
Mangled guitars, insistent beats and Mark E Smith sprechgesang remain the disorder of things, sometimes to a fault, with extended pandemic-era time helping the quartet work the studio as a tool.
50
Gilla Band's latest, heaviest album yet starts strong but falters in the second half.
12mo
A short but sweet dosage of chaos!
It's taken me quite a while to get round to checking out this album since I finally found a copy of it at the record store last week. Nice to be reviewing music from an Irish band on here again!
Dublin-based noise rock quartet Gilla Band take their musicality to an unhinged level with influences of multiple genres combined together. Their music fuses noise rock with elements of post-punk, indie, industrial and even a slight techno influence which is crazy to ... read more
Gilla Band, formerly known as Girl Band, were always a band I saw incredible potential in, a potential that shone through at times on their first two records but was ultimately dragged down by various things. Their debut, 'Holding Hands with Jamie', had some brilliant ideas and really was, all things considered, a good debut album, but ultimately, it's poor production really took the edge off a lot of its noise rock elements, and the band hadn't yet found their space in that rather daunting ... read more
The first track shreds my ears but aside from that, the album rips!
Seriously though, I've been a Gilla Band fan for years (still feels very weird typing that instead of Girl Band lmfao) and it's very nice to hear them going in this new direction. It's been a very interesting progression to witness. Holding Hands with Jamie was awesome noisy post-punk, the Talkies added experimental rock, and now Most Normal adds no wave to the equation. I would say that I definitely prefer their last two ... read more
Idk if it is what they put into the water in Dublin or if its the Guinness in the air that just breeds good musicians but goodness me
perfect first 6 songs would be a 95+ score if it was an ep
the gum is mind blowing
those 6 songs makes a perfect workout playlist
looses momentum and my attention by the weirds and the rest is just ok but its such a big dip in quality i feel
A short but sweet dosage of chaos!
It's taken me quite a while to get round to checking out this album since I finally found a copy of it at the record store last week. Nice to be reviewing music from an Irish band on here again!
Dublin-based noise rock quartet Gilla Band take their musicality to an unhinged level with influences of multiple genres combined together. Their music fuses noise rock with elements of post-punk, indie, industrial and even a slight techno influence which is crazy to ... read more
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Track List
| 1 | The Gum 2:48 | 76 |
| 2 | Eight Fivers 2:20 | 77 |
| 3 | Backwash 3:21 | 85 |
| 4 | Gushie 1:09 | 72 |
| 5 | Bin Liner Fashion 2:18 | 81 |
| 6 | Capgras 0:55 | 70 |
| 7 | The Weirds 6:44 | 78 |
| 8 | I Was Away 4:38 | 75 |
| 9 | Almost Soon 3:22 | 78 |
| 10 | Red Polo Neck 1:59 | 71 |
| 11 | Pratfall 2:34 | 66 |
| 12 | Post Ryan 4:26 | 79 |
Total Length: 36 minutes
Year End Lists
| #7 | / | Louder Than War |
| #13 | / | The Guardian |
| #18 | / | RIOT |
| #23 | / | Beats Per Minute |
| #35 | / | The FADER |
| #37 | / | MondoSonoro |
| #42 | / | musicOMH |
| #48 | / | Hot Press |
| #50 | / | Far Out Magazine |
| #58 | / | MOJO |
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2mo
Me when an Irishman yells at me about cheap clothing over the sound of someone who has never heard of an electric guitar attempting to play one: 🕺💃🕺💃🕺💃
Added on: July 13, 2022