ALBUM: Tacocat - 'Lost Time' - GigslutzGigslutz

Tacocat are, without a doubt, the coolest – and sweetest – band around. They’re actual best friends, they’re astonishingly fun, they’re smashing stupid notions of ‘girl bands’ and they made the new Powerpuff Girls theme tune, plus their music is a whole new level of exciting.

Produced by Erik Blood, who vocalist Emily Nokes describes as a “beautiful wizard”, the new studio album Lost Time is, rather simply, Tacocat in an album. Though Blood seems to give their snarling pop an even greater depth – assumingly where his wizardry comes into play – Lost Time embodies just how fun Tacocat are.

With tracks like ‘I Hate The Weekend’ (watch the new video below) and ‘You Can’t Fire Me, I Quit’ boasting lyrics like “You’re not breaking up with me / I’m breaking up with you actually”, the band have a fiery wit – a brutal sarcasm that’s both hilarious and freeing. Listening to Tacocat almost feels like being part of their friendship (if only). Tackling feminism head on, destroying notions that it can’t be fun by, well, being fun, Lost Time feels like a sleepover. Talking about anything from Plan B to night swimming, it’s so refreshingly carefree.

Musically, it’s as strong as everything else they do. Nokes’ chirpy, yet equally cutting, vocals float above the intensity of the rest of the instrumentation, Lela Maupin’s rhythms driving the whole thing forward. The musicality seems to match everything else perfectly: carefree and snarling in equal measure, a combination that Tacocat have down to a T. Combining brooding punk with lyrics like “complete collection of all things equestrian” is a formula that perhaps shouldn’t work, but don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it because it most certainly does.

Lost Time is out 1 April via Hardly Art, and should (and no doubt will) be one of the most exciting albums of 2016 – and forever after.

Melissa Svensen
@MelYeaahh