Published on Jul 8, 1997
I’m a sucker for grrrl groups. It started when I was 6,
screaming “I Love Rock N’ Roll!”, from Joan Jett, and continues
today when I was humming the Cycle Sluts From Hell song “I Wish You
Were a Beer!” today at work. And no one wears the crown of this
genre better than L7.
After their last album,
Hungry For Stink, L7 appeared to be K-Tel bound, having only
one hit, “Pretend We’re Dead”, off their
Bricks Are Heavy album. They came back with a vengeance this
year with
The Beauty Process:Triple Platinum. The album is the best
release from L7 so far, and hopefully the “triple platinum” part of
the album title will come true for them.
There’s enough hits on this album to render it triple platinum.
Original bassist Jennifer Finch has left for college and former
Belly bassist Gail Greenwood has taken her place. She fits in
perfectly with the band. The chemistry is evident from the start of
the album. The band has never sounded this unified. From the
slamming, kick ass opening of “Drama”, it only gets better from
there.
The album is solid all around, but the best track is
undoubtedly, “Off The Wagon”. It’s a hilarious ode to getting
schlossed and with lyrics like “Oh shit I lost my ID/hook up the
Jagermeister IV,” this sould be the summer anthem of ’97.
Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner wrote all the lyrics to
The Beauty Process. Both of them share guitar duties also
and its interesting to see the differing styles the two possess.
Sparks is the more mellow, melody-oriented and Gardner is the
aggressive howler. Most of the songs on the album deal with some
form of anger, be it a full, pissed off release like “I Need” or a
more subtle approach, as in “Bitter Wine”.
As heavy as L7 are, the group really shows its depth in the
slower numbers on
The Beauty Process. They even show some innovation by having
Lionel Richie pop in for a cameo on “Moonshine”. In “Non-Existant
Patricia,” a somber account of a helpless wallflower, the band gets
downright moody. The vulnerability of Sparks’s voice on that song
almost made me forget this is coming from the same band that threw
a used tampon at a troublesome fan (top that Courtney Love, or GWAR
for that matter).
The album could have used another slow number to make a truly
great balance between their pensiveness and their grab your balls
aggression. When L7 gets too aggressive, they usually stumble like
in the track “Bad Things”. The last track, “Lorenza, Giada,
Alessandra,” may be head banging material for a live show, but it
doesn’t fit in well with the other tracks.
The general consensus of the album comes from the song “The
Masses Are Asses,” when Gardner sings, “I still get angry/I still
get pissed”. Though they may have slowed down a bit, they still
have enough targets to hit for a good four or five more albums. For
now though..bring on the drama!