She Drew the Gun - Revolution of Mind

  by Kimberly Bright

published: 14 / 1 / 2019

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Review

Louisa Roach is the intelligent, charismatic, Liverpool native frontwoman, guitarist, and songwriter of She Drew the Gun, with a decidedly lefty political outlook and feminist/lesbian/liberationist agenda on her band's new manifesto-like album, ‘Revolution of Mind’. The album's concept evolved from the spoken-word version of ‘Resister’ (re-sister – get it?) that she started doing at gigs. Her poetry is not quite rap but she casts a similar critical eye on society and current events and trends, very much along the lines of a laidback John Cooper Clarke. She cites Malvina Reynolds, Manchester poet Toria Garbutt, Kate Tempest, Nadine Shah, and Courtney Barnett as inspirations for the album. Roach's album art and the videos for the 60’s mod-ish ‘Something For the Pain’ and ‘Resister’ take inspiration from the 70’s feminist artwork of Barbara Kruger, using projected slogans on screens and walls behind Roach, as well as the riot grrrl movement, drawing and painting slogans and poignant messages on one's body. There's a lot of riot grrrl aesthetic here, but the music is danceable pop-psych and retro pop rather than strident punk. Roach's spoken word performances on ‘Revolution of Mind’ are wonderfully powerful – think Kathy Acker collaborating with Beat poet Anne Waldman, Luscious Jackson, and Gil Scott-Heron (Speaking of collaborations, I would love to see one between Roach and Lonelady.). It's enough to make one miss the poetry slams of the early 90’s. Her singing voice is beguilingly lovely and screechless however angry she might feel. Every song is a well-articulated call to action, political or personal (“You've gotta keep your head up/Find a good heart”), with her words carefully chosen. On ‘Paradise’ Roach portrays how everyone uses technology as a medium for escapism and avoiding the ills of the world rather than confronting them. On ‘Arm Yourself’ she sings “Arm yourself with me/We have just words to make us free/And in my chest I know this beat/My heart will never know defeat/My song is unity, liberty, romance /So let’s dance dance dance dance dance.” These songs have been released at a politically grim time. Yet the message of the album overall is a positive, uplifting one, and I suspect that the revolution – which seems nearer than ever after a listen or two - will indeed involve a lot of dancing.

Track Listing:-

1 Resister
2 Something For The Pain
3 Arm Yourself
4 Between Stars
5 Wolf and Bird
6 Paradise
7 Ocean Song
8 Revolution Of Mind
9 Dopamine
10 Resister Reprise
11 Human

Band Links:-

http://www.shedrewthegun.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SheDrewTheGun
https://twitter.com/shedrewthegun
https://www.youtube.com/user/SheDrewTh
https://plus.google.com/+Shedrewthegun
https://shedrewthegun.bandcamp.com/

Label Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/SkeletonKeyRe
http://www.skeletonkeyrecords.com/