Background
Lambrini Girls released the EP You're Welcome in May 2023, which charted at No. 29 on the Official Record Store Chart. [2] The EP was the last release to feature Catt Jack, who had left earlier that year. [3] The band had become known for abrasive punk songs about social issues such as misogyny, gender-critical feminism, and homophobia, [4] and had a reputation for actioning their beliefs, having threatened to "scrap" any gender-critical feminists "any day, in person, with my fists" in 2023 and having pulled out of The Great Escape Festival in 2024 over the band's pro-Palestine stance. [5]
They wrote their debut album, Who Let the Dogs Out, in Oxford in April 2024 [6] during two bursts over ten days during breaks in their tour. The first half of their sessions followed a strict structure of waking up, going for a run, making breakfast, and then writing from about midday to around 7 or 8pm, but they found this too regimented, [7] so for the second half, they ordered in massive amounts of alcohol and took breaks at will. The album was then recorded with Daniel Fox of Gilla Band, [8] who the band had previously supported on tour and who had produced their single "God's Country", [9] and mixed by Seth Manchester, who had produced works by Mdou Moctar, Battles, and Model/Actriz. [8]
In September 2024, they released "Company Culture", a sarcastic track written about toxic workplace environments. [10] By the following month, they had signed to City Slang; that month, they announced Who Let the Dogs Out and released "Big Dick Energy", a track about toxic masculinity [11] accompanied by a lyric video containing the Urban Dictionary definition of the phrase "big dick energy", messages they had received on Hinge, and shots of the band performing. [12] In the album announcement of Who Let the Dogs Out, the band mooted the idea of dedicating the album to "all the booze we bought at Tesco". [11] The month after that, they released "Love", a track about toxic relationships. [13]
They released Who Let the Dogs Out on 10 January 2025; [14] the album took its name from an inside joke involving the song of that name by Baha Men. [4] The album includes many diatribes about social issues; "Bad Apple" and "Nothing Tastes As Good As It Feels" rail against police brutality and diet culture, [15] while "You're Not from Around Here", "No Homo", and "Filthy Rich Nepo Baby" address gentrification, homophobia, and nepotism [16] and "Special Different" is about neurodiversity. [4] The album contains one interlude, "Scarcity is Fake (Communist Propaganda)", which comprises a speech by Stokely Carmichael. [17] In an interview with the Official Charts Company shortly after release, the band described the album as "a party for pissed off, gay, angry sluts". [18]
They promoted the album with a music video for closing track "Cuntology 101" posted shortly after the album's release. [19] The song contained 32 uses of the word "cunt" [16] and a "C-U-N-T" cheerleading chant [15] and describes many things as "cunty" such as "learning how to let go", "sensing boundaries", "respecting others", "having cum on my shirt", [20] "having an autistic meltdown", "shagging behind some bins", "doing a poo at your friend’s house", [16] and "stealing shit from chain stores". [21] Lunny wrote the song as a palate cleanser, as she wanted to write something celebrating herself, [4] and as an exercise in relating as many trivial matters to self-love as she could. The song's title took its name from a phrase she found amusing: "Yeah, that's "Cuntology 101", bitch!". [22] For the song's recording, Maciera attempted to teach herself FL Studio, but found learning the program in a day overambitious and ended up writing using the studio's Behringer Model D s. [23] Dale Maplethorpe of Far Out compared the song with Limp Bizkit's 2000 song "Hot Dog", a song which made frequent gratuitous use of the word "fuck", [24] while Alexis Petridis of The Guardian used a review of the album to liken it to a Brat-era successor to Ian Dury and the Blockheads's "Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3". [16]
Reception
Who Let the Dogs Out received widespread acclaim from critics. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the album holds a score of 83 out of 100 based on 17 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". [25] The album received positive reviews from Petridis, [16] When the Horn Blows, [36] Pitchfork, [15] The Soundboard Reviews, [37] Beats Per Minute, [38] DIY, [39] The Arts Desk , [40] Kerrang!, [41] Clash, [5] Rolling Stone, [20] Dork, [42] NME, [43] AllMusic , [44] Narc, [45] Classic Rock, [46] Louder, [47] The Skinny, [48] and MusicOMH , [49] though negative reviews came from Far Out [50] and Sputnikmusic . [51] Initially forecast to chart at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart, [52] the album instead made that week's listing at No. 16. [53]
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