Bully
Feels Like
Reviewed by: Max Miller
Truth be told, I’d been purposely avoiding Nashville, TN’s Bully right up until I took the assignment to review Feels Like, their debut LP. Everything about the buzz the music press had built up around them seemed all-too-familiar in a way I knew would leave me disappointed. (Not to mention, I’m pretty sure some site or other described them in a subheader as “Your New Favorite Band,” which is pretty much a surefire way to get me to not listen to a band out of sheer spite.) Having now finally given the damn thing a listen, I think my original feelings were warranted — but I don’t know how fair that is to Bully.
Because all Feels Like is is a competent, catchy fuzz-pop record no less or more deserving of my admiration than, say, You’re Living All Over Me or Yuck’s self-titled debut. This same model of album — fuzzy guitars, loud-soft-loud dynamics, economical runtimes — comes out with a startling regularity; so much so that, by the time you’ve heard the vaguely shoegazing riff of opener “I Remember,” you more or less know exactly what you’re in for. But why is it, then, that I sometimes choose to enjoy this model (Joanna Gruesome, Yuck, Purling Hiss) and other times treat it with such indifference as to resemble contempt (California X, Happy Diving and, honestly, the vast majority of other contenders)? Is there some ineffable quality present on certain records that just gives them an undeniable charisma? Or are my feelings on this particular strain of rock ‘n’ roll, a breed with which I’ve become overly familiar, revealed to be basically arbitrary?
I can’t answer that. And, as such, I don’t know what to say about Bully. I could certainly dismiss them as lacking innovation — something I’ve done often enough for other bands in the past. But that’s starting to feel unfair. Sure, Feels Like presents absolutely nothing new, but it still has plenty of redeeming qualities. All the songs, for all their facelessness, are masterfully written. Vocalist/guitarist Alicia Bognanno has an expertly raw voice and a flawless guitar tone. The bass is refreshingly up-front, carrying equal weight melodically and rhythmically. These are objectively true things about Feels Like as a certain kind of rock album. But does that make it good? I don’t know how to answer that. For a certain kind of person — a kind of person I once was, even — this record could be transcendent. But I know I’ll probably never listen to it again.
Rating: Listenable
