L7

This monstrously hard-rocking Los Angeles quartet can attract hordes of hair-flinging,
stage-diving devotees at home and humiliate headliners on tour. What L7 has been unable
to do, however, is translate its big grungy mess of a sound into product; both its 1987 outing
on Epitaph and a 1990 EP for Sub Pop, Smell the Magic, failed. Enter Slash Records and
producer du jour Butch Vig, whom many credit with the success of Nirvana's Ne... More >

Once again Butch Vig's mission is to smelt speed-sludge into grunge-metal alloy, which with this band involves intense admixtures of ditty and power chord. Although the passion of their major-label stab may not match Nirvana's, it's just as catchy and a touch nastier. Driven onward by the quick and muscular Dee Plakas, their buzzing textures and heavy hooks are streamlined rather than softened or dulled even if they don't accelerate like on last year's thrash longform. Read-my-title outbursts like "Wargasm," "Diet Pill," and "Sh*tlist" fulfill the ancient prophecy of a time when gurls would reinvent punk out of sheer delight in their own power. Grrrls will be grrrls. (Grade: A)