Not to dwell too much on one of the most exposed novelty songs of the past few decades, but Who Let The Dogs Out is a fairly on-brand sentiment for Lambrini Girls to claim. Its original author Anslem Douglas has openly called it a “man-bashing song”, calling out catcall culture and the inability for some men to leave women alone to have a good time. Lambrini Girls, meanwhile, have built an identity on standing up for women and LGBTQ+ and marginalised communities, with an emphatic disregard for playing it sweet or civil.
Although you could sub in near enough any other non-male punk or post-punk band into that statement and get the same result, Lambrini Girls’ extra kick has ultimately been what’s made them. It’s been there from the start on their You’re Welcome EP, an added gnarled affect that takes Phoebe Lunny’s register from snappy, snarky disaffection to outright fury. They’ve arguably pushed themselves into some pseudo-mainstream spaces off of it, to where Who Let The Dogs Out already has something of a magnitude on the general release calendar. Compared to other acts in their punk spaces for whom initial breakout hype peters out like nobody’s business, this is a markedly different sensation.
It’s an angle that Lambrini Girls have, not a gimmick. Frankly, it’s the furthest thing from one. And that’s probably where a good portion of the admiration for Lambrini Girls has come from. You can only take so much private-school post-punk slumming it with the commoners before you realise it isn’t a substitute for something really genuine, after all. In the case of Who Let The Dogs Out, it’s a messy, short-fused, cider-drunk brand of punk that’s far, far from a pretender’s approximation. The closest they get to the contrary is Cuntology 101 as an attempt to engineer their own Brat-like brand, though it’s obviously not bound for the corporatised ‘second life’ that a splodge of putrid lime-green was in 2024.
That’s obviously the intent, if the disdain for the white-collar boys’ club of the office world on Company Culture is anything to go by. That’s but one of the many sources of ire for Who Let The Dogs Out to draw upon, where Lambrini Girls are unquestionably at their best. And even though a number of these targets are riddled with bullet holes already—a corrupt, untrustworthy police force (Bad Apple); performative ‘allies’ (Big Dick Energy); rampant gentrification, frequently of already-disparaged communities (You’re Not From Around Here)—but it’s the execution that counts more. Lunny’s shrieks often peak and splinter, and feel pleasantly unrefined in what they evoke. It’s a far cry from a sardonic deadpan that only goes so far before its impact dies off; meanwhile, Lambrini Girls basically take the same core ideas (all the quickfire sloganeering and snarky humour) and give them a hell of a recharge.
Perhaps, then, you can unfold and extrapolate Filthy Rich Nepo Baby as the declaration of dominance that Lambrini Girls clearly believe is theirs. It might as well be as a succinct cutdown of the acts given success and status by birthright, a lot of whom Lambrini Girls will likely be rubbing shoulders with in the coming months. They’re just that good at punching upwards, to where each blow lands squarely where it needs to. As far as they are from being ‘sophisticated’ by any standard metric, pound-for-pound, they’re a stronger band than many who they’ll be pitted against. The core tenet of Who Let The Dogs Out is to hold fast and surge forward in an industry—or indeed, a world—infiltrated by the wrong kind of people, something which Lambrini Girls live up to through profoundly normal, average, relatable means.
‘Refreshing’ is the wrong word when Lambrini Girls are by no means the only ones with that attitude, but it’s always good to have another one finding a foothold from which to proclaim themselves from. In this case, the exposure from touring with IDLES won’t have hurt, but Who Let The Dogs Out is ear-catching on its own merits to justify its creators’ rise. Here’s another selection of songs that Lunny will inevitably be anywhere other than onstage for when performing, shaped into a scrappy half-hour block with barely a slowdown in sight. In intent, it’s as classic and straightforward as punk comes. Of course, the ‘post-‘ prefix isn’t just for show, thanks to some phenomenal basswork from Lily Macieira as a throttling power source. Ultimately, that’s the element that ties together Lambrini Girls’ aggression and assertiveness, the piece of them which slams through the chaff and deposits them as properly convincing scene frontrunners.
It certainly sets the tone for Lambrini Girls’ 2025, where they not only have arguably the first big album release, but also the first big burst of momentum for the year to come. It was never in doubt; their bar hasn’t been raised or lowered but it was at a good height to begin with. More importantly, though, there’s an increased visibility that, from every possible angle, is only a good thing. The messages are uniformly strong; the delivery of them is even better; and the package as a whole is exactly representative of what punk and post-punk needs to be in order to hit. Innovation can be secondary to impact, and Who Let The Dogs Out proves that Lambrini Girls have that by the truckload.
For fans of: Amyl And The Sniffers, SPRINTS, IDLES
‘Who Let The Dogs Out’ by Lambrini Girls is out now on City Slang Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
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