Behave Myself. She Drew The Gun

She Drew The Gun? What kind of band name is that?, I can't help but wonder reading the name on the cd. It is sort of cool and in combination with the album's title, Behave Myself, it raises some questions too. Behave yourself while drawing a gun? This is not a lady to approach without soft gloves on. The first point are in She Drew The Gun's basket. I was intrigued and started to play the album, expecting punkrock, angry explosions.

If anything, Behave Myself is a modern album. It combines alternative rock, pop singing melodies, Madchester drum rhythms, electronics and switches between more traditional songs and very modern sounding ones. The result is extremely danceable music. Standing still is hardly an option listening to this music. The moodchanges in the songs keeps the listener on his toes. More than enough goes on for both extremes to enjoy what's going on here.

She Drew The Gun is Louisa Roach's band. Started as a solo act in 2013, she built a live band around herself that releases its third album this week. It's my first album but I can only say that the introduction is quite agreeable. This band presents itself beyond a one dimensional form, as some bands do. With a song like 'Class War (How Much)' a stand is taken for the poor. It is in line with how Louisa Roach describes herself: "working class, socialist, feminist, mother of a child". The message is packed into an alternative pop song, where the Giorgio Moroder like disco rhythm of 'Panopticon' in my view would have underscored the message of class war in a better, more driving way. She Drew The Gun takes a different view. A class war to sing along to is another option and works.

The surprise of Behave Myself is that a lot of the songs are so different. Despite the fact that over half fit my introductory description, it is easy to spot the differences. The weird sounds coming from the keyboards and synths certainly assist here. Pulsing, floating, wavering, hovering it all comes by while guitar, bass and drums ground the songs in a firm way before they disappear into thin air; Alternative rhythms with singing tending towards rapping; A pure pop song receiving a She Drew The Gun treatment, you will find it all come by. And on top of it all several great, modern sounding rock songs.

With Behave Myself She Drew The Gun has come into my life. It seems like the album may stay for a while.

Wout de Natris