Shrag - Shrag

(AU magazine, March 2009)

Album review

Where It's At Is Where You Are

The music world is perma-braced for the next big thing. Holler! Younger than your kid sister and twice as stroppy, Shrag are IT, holding back no capital letters. From the Art Brut-style opening chords of 'Pregnancy Scene', these five young pups exhibit a grasp of the snappy lyric, the infectious hook and the melodic bridge that leaves bigger bands reeling from the pungency of youth. From tales of teens in the family way to inept sexual encounters - 'Talk To The Left' - delivered by Helen King, an erudite vocalist with all the lusty nonchalance of Lush's Miki Berenyi, this is a roll call of adolescent dramas, but executed with a lightness of touch and deftness of wit that seem unlikely from a band twice their age.