Beauty is best served with rage. Artemisia Gentileschi, Clarice Lispector, and Anne Sexton all apotheosized through the sublimation of rage. Why? Their works refuse to be timid reactions against patriarchal society; they violently threw themselves against oppression. Therefore, it endowed their creations with the risk of self-annihilation. You’re unwilling or unable to look away as life is felt most intensely in the proximity of its potential demise. Modern Woman, a London art-rock quartet fronted by songwriter and literature graduate Sophie Harris, are the same. Yes, on their debut album, Johnny’s Dreamworld, Modern Woman pummel you in the face like a pugilist and some.
When she is not landing punches, Harris throws rage like sand in your eyes. Then, as if it is part of her daily routine, she nonchalantly walks away and waves you goodbye (though, of course, you’re blind to the fact). You can thank her later—really. The band reminds listeners that rage isn’t a callow act. Rather, it is an articulation of indignation against societal expectations of modern women. Thus, when Harris produces fiendish and guttural screams, the personal is the political, and vice versa.
Sylvia Plath ends her poem, “Lady Lazarus”, with the line “I eat men like air.” There is a morbid humor to the metaphor: she eats, not breathes in air. Or, perhaps, there is no humor. Instead, it is a plain-spoken truth that is so ferocious you must assuage the impact by viewing it as a kind of joke, not that a joke, though, cannot partly or entirely reveal truth, as Freud promulgated. In any case, you feel as if Harris could also eat men like air. There is even, you could say, a combativeness to the record worthy of the Slits, or riot grrrl Heavens to Betsy, or, for a contemporary reference, early Wolf Alice.
Modern Woman have a name that suggests the present, but they are, in certain ways, rooted in the past. Where exactly? They look back to the 1990s grunge when loud and quiet dynamics were in vogue and when PJ Harvey bellowed like a blues shouter, a Big Mama Thornton of the West Country. Actually, the album draws parallels with Harvey’s Dry (1992).
Modern Woman are neither a simulacrum of Harvey nor exclusively indebted to grunge; they are also influenced by the present zeitgeist. For instance, the opening titular track, “Johnny’s Dreamworld”, could be by Hannah Merrick of King Hannah. Harris speaks/sings over a sonorous bassline, as well as citing “New Jersey”, a lyric technique employed by the Liverpudlian duo. While the undulating “Neptune Girl” echoes Black Country, New Road‘s 2021 debut record, For the First Time, albeit it is much heavier, complete with murderous roars of jealousy when the narrator reveals a lover picking someone over her in New England.
That is to say that the band wears their influences on their sleeves. The skittery, bass-driven “Offerings” could be 1990s Nick Cave (especially the line “with God on my side”), complete with pizzicato violin; in the coda, there is a blistering guitar solo and savage drumming. Harris’ vocal talent shines in “Killing a Dog”: caterwauling falsettos and banshee-like screams that evoke Kate Bush. The folk-laced “Fork/Heart” is, effectively, a murder ballad. Throughout the verses, Harris sings in tremulous falsetto before lowering her register in the chorus, which gives the impression that the narrator has deigned to torment you further.
“Dashboard Mary”, the apex of the album, is about the morning after a nocturnal escapade. With punchy tom-toms and Bush-esque vocal acrobatics, not to mention Florence Welch, the track slowly builds, reaching a dramatic crescendo, when layers of guitar distortion envelop the listener, like mist hugging a shoreline. “Am not coming home,” Harris repeats as a mantra over nebulous, grungy feedback, abetted by walloping drumming, which makes you think that the drummer could put his hands through the drumheads and somehow continue to play.
The last track, piano-led “The Garden”, could be a ballad by the Last Dinner Party, though Modern Woman are not over-anxious to please or to play it safe. Throughout the record, though, they, like the Last Dinner Party, imbue it with baroque drama, succulent grandeur, and decadent violence.
Certainly, the eclecticism regarding the sound is both its highlight and its downfall. Put differently, the operatic Johnny’s Dreamworld offers a range of sounds, from post-punk to art-rock to chamber pop, which, though often exciting and impactful, suggests a band looking for an aesthetic that they don’t quite find. Once they do, however, Modern Woman will be a force to be reckoned with.