Hey everybody, my name is Giggens and it's my honor today to talk about the brand new album by The Femcels, their debut, I Have to Get Hotter.

Formed in 2024 in London, this duo consists of Rowan and Gabriella, and their brand of electronic dance pop, hyperpop, sort of glitchy music is so uniquely them. But you can definitely hear influences from like Bassvictim, which Ike, from that band, produced this record. And despite all their super quirky, often humorous vocals, they do cite classic bands like The Beach Boys and The Beatles and even Elvis as their main inspirations. Personally, I hear a ton of Kero Kero Bonito, The Go! Team, even like The Moldy Peaches in terms of lyrical content, and wilder moments like from Sleigh Bells.

Rowan and Gabriella on this album, lyrically, go everywhere from desperate lust, to scared of being perceived, to trying to figure out how to express emotions, maybe in a generation that doesn't openly express themselves. And that sort of back and forth leads this album. It's kind of a roller coaster of emotions, and you get moments that are, like I said, very wild, very crazy, sort of hyperpop, and then you get moments that are like darker and somber and more introspective. And that balance plays well with each other. One of my favorite quotes from the group is they describe their music sounding like either lollipops or donuts, and it's pretty fitting.

One other note before I jump into the songs is that there's so many moments on this album where I feel like they're just taking the piss, like they're in on the joke, they're in on the bit, but then there's moments where they allow themselves to be vulnerable and actually express how they're feeling inside, and I like that dynamic because you get an example or an idea of being inside the mind of somebody in their either late teens or early 20s. I'm not sure how old they are, but like you get that feeling that like you're either in high school or college, and like you get these back and forth conflicting moments of like, "I'm super cool, I'm the coolest person in school," or "the indiest girl in school," as they say at one point. Or you get moments where it's like, "Wow, the world is crushing me, I don't know how to act, I'm trying to be cool, am I cool, am I not?"

The album opens up with them declaring they are in fact The Femcels, and that they don't have sex. In the background, the instrumentation is a million different bleeps and bloops and textures. Following the intro is the classic title, "No One Will Fuck Me When I Wear Two Different Shoes", which truly sounds like a lost Kero Kero Bonito song. It's got these whispery, sly, coy vocals, the sort of Y2K phone bleeps in the back, that slacker cool, calm delivery of explaining what's going on, being kind of nonchalant about it. There's lines about meeting people who are going to Turkey to get new double D's. It's peppy, it's crazy, it's absolute fun. And again, back and forth on the like, 'where are we standing in relationships?'

"Come Let Us Adore Him" really sets the groundwork for the more crazier moments on this album with lots of screams, lots of brash, really overproduced sounding textures that keep your interest but are also a little grating, which I think is kind of the point. There's moments where it does calm down a bit, but it feels like you've got 30 tabs open on your laptop all playing scream sounds at the same time, which is kind of cool. Lyrically, it's all over the shop, but there are some interesting moments about comparing some guy's legs to cream cheese, "good cream cheese", as she says.

"Is Loser An Emotion You Feel Too?" Great song title. This one I really enjoy. This is one of my favorites on the album because it takes a back seat. It takes a little bit of a calmer approach, and it sounds like — I'm getting like "Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl" from Broken Social Scene. Like the guitar is really punchily strummed, if you will, but the chorus is, you know, very breathy and the vocals are timid. There's a soft delivery, and it's nice to hear their range of emotions and hearing them sing together not necessarily in harmony, but in unison, and it works really well.

The "Indiest Girl at School" is wonderful because it's one of those moments where, you know, you have those moments when you're young, when you're in high school and college, you think like, "Alright, if I dress a certain way, I'll fit in. If I look a certain way or I say certain things or if I listen to the right bands, you know, I'm gonna be cool and quote-unquote 'you should date me,'" as she sings in the song. So you get these moments of like, "Oh, what if I act like the indiest girl at school?"

Because like back in the day, like when we were in college, being the indie-est kid in school was like the coolest thing you can be. "Oh, you know all the bands that no one else knows. Oh, you dress like, you know, you got these like penny loafers on and maybe like a sports blazer or something." Like, you dressed like a hipster, which I don't think that word's used anymore, but back in those days, being the indie-est person was like the ideal sense of cool. Musically on that song, there's moments that almost sound like the verses to a Good Charlotte song, or like second or third album, Sum 41. Definitely early Y2K kind of pop punk feel.

The next couple of songs, "She Seems So Stupid" and "Even Though You're Blonde", finds the group playing with more textures and, you know, takes it down a little bit from the sort of wild zany expressiveness that has happened so far on the album. There's more whispering vocals, there's like a whistle solo, group vocals that kind of give you like an indie rock punch feel.

And then you get to the track "I'm So Fat", which is for me personally one of the most vulnerable moments on the album because not only is the song itself catchy and memorable because there's a couple of really good hooks on it, but like lyrically it's a pretty deep song. It's about showing your body to somebody and wondering what they might think, and when that person has no reaction, that hurts.

And throughout this track you find Gabriella and Rowan wanting to live a life without fear and wanting to live a life that's comfortable for them and hoping that maybe the next person that sees them in that way will be nicer about it and actually say something. There's a great line in this song, "I kiss my mirror to overcome my fear," and they repeat that over and over again like a mantra as the song fades out, or it doesn't really fade out, but as it goes on. And it's just such a moving moment to be like, you know, when you're talking to the mirror, it's just you. It's like that Simpsons meme, it's like, "Alright, Brain, it's just you and me."

You know, society tells us how our bodies should look, but real bodies don't look like what society wants us to look like. And when we just open up and be ourselves, it can be scary.

The next couple of songs, "He Needs Me" and "Please Don't Stab Yourself Like Elliott Smith", follow up that one. And "He Needs Me" kind of interpolates the old song and almost feels like, you know, what Carly Rae Jepsen did with her version of "He Needs Me". And "Please Don't Stab Yourself like Elliott Smith" is, for me, lyrically all over the shop. It starts off talking about guppies, the fish, and then it moves into JavaScript and how much you can do with it building websites. So this song, for me, is such a non-sequitur, I'm trying to figure out how the parts match up with each other.

"Not ur friend" – this is another one I like on this album. It's kind of a darker feel, but the group plays really well with these like dark whispers and coy dance beats accented by really nice cymbal flashes and an almost music box kind of like hypnotic thing in the background. An album highlight for sure, it's really well performed. I feel like the focus on this track is a lot stronger than the rest of the album has been so far in terms of like pop song construction without going completely off the rails. Bordering almost on a sinister feel, it's cool.

"Monster In You" kind of follows up that vibe and continues that sort of darker feel. Expressing themselves through more distorted beats, computer bleeps and bloops, and vocals that have that like, "I don't really care who's listening" kind of feel, like, "This is the story that's happened, this is what I'm telling you." It feels more mature, more focused, more grimy, and very cool to hear them continuing this vibe.

I gotta give The Femcels credit for some of the best song titles of all time. This one I'm gonna read off my little paper here: "You're Gay And You're In Love With Me (Please Let Me Touch Your Boobs)". That's the song title.

They mention being in a place that smells like incels and hot dogs, and it's about convincing another girl that, you know, they're in fact gay and they should like you as the other girl. They like the greasy hair. They like introducing these people to their parents. They like everything that comes with being the new girl or being with the new girl. It's an extremely fun song. It's very funny. It's very forward. I like their confidence on this song, and just hearing how, like, you know, people can talk to each other and try to break the ice, I think, is, uh, it's another interesting point of view.

"A & Arnold", this one definitely has more Sleigh Bells moments for me on it, where, like, the chorus vocals have sort of like almost like a kids' playground type of song, kind of sing-songy refrain, bashing cymbals in the background, which definitely has Sleigh Bells feels.

"Birds Just Want To Be Planes", for me, sounds like an early Animal Collective song, definitely with that sort of ASMR crunchy production, and it continues those wild vocals. The album ends with an acoustic version of "Monster In You", and it's nice to hear it like that. It's, uh, definitely an indie rock kind of tune on its own.

Overall, The Femcels deliver a hyper, messy, catchy set of songs that are going through ever-changing emotions. Sometimes the excitement of a new relationship is in some songs, sometimes they relish in taking someone down, sometimes they love having sex, sometimes they don't have sex at all. The world they've created here is very self-aware and very focused on themselves and not being like anybody else.

They are aware of what's going on, they're aware of who they are together as a duo, and kind of how they conquer the world together. It's a unique listening experience for sure, you know, if you haven't heard bands like Bassvictim for instance, this might be kind of a new sound for you, but I definitely like the sort of messy layers that some of these songs have and the more sort of stripped back moments some of these songs have. You know, whatever the emotion is that they're looking for or looking to achieve on the song, they're all in.

I can see where they're going, and I can see what the future holds for The Femcels. They have something really special and really unique on their hands here, and I think with a little bit more focus and a little bit more diving into their own hearts and their own souls, you can create something that's wild and ambitious and crazy, but also maybe a little dark at the same time, or maybe a little bit more, you know, from the heart.

So that being said, I do really enjoy this album. It's funny, it's sometimes heavy, it can be sensitive, it can be sort of braggadocious, if you will. I'm definitely feeling a good 7 on this thing.

See you next time. Femcels forever!