Screaming Females: Singles

It’s hard to say what qualifies as singles these days. Nevertheless, Singles is the title of the latest from Screaming Females. What comprises this release is more a collection of the band’s 7-inches — the old-school implications may scare away the youngsters who don’t own record players — and the album shows the band in its rarest form. Screaming Females hails from Brunswick, New Jersey and is equal parts Joan Jett, Angry Samoans, and Guided by Voices. Marissa Paternoster, the band’s sole, actual screaming female, possesses a fiery, quavering voice that commands attention; her equally commanding guitar skills render the group meaningful past the recent lo-fi fad faze. Singles includes a pretty rad version of Neil Young’s “Cortex the Killer” and opener “Arm Over Arm” is an epic five-plus-minutes-long song that wallows in song-a-long lyrics. Casual listeners might prefer the more pristine-version of the band via last year’s full-length Power Move, but Singles is a tasty morsel of a feisty young talent.