Scowl : Are We All Angels
For a band that began their debut album with a song as explosive as “Bloodhound,” Scowl never kept their penchant for pop immediacy hidden. On that same album, 2021’s How Flowers Grow, the Santa Cruz band likewise offered a moment of hook-laden levity in “Seeds to Sow,” finding vocalist Kat Moss trading searing growls for a melodic singing style while the band aimed for a more anthemic approach—not to mention its use of saxophone. Still rooted in heavier sounds, but reaching a hand out to those standing back far enough from the stage to avoid being crowdkilled.
“Seeds to Sow” offered only a 100-second glimpse of the kind of widescreen power pop Scowl were capable of, the likes of which is on full display on sophomore album Are We All Angels. Their debut for Dead Oceans, a label whose indie hit ratio is already uncannily high (Japanese Breakfast, Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers), Are We All Angels roars to life with Cole Gilbert’s thunderous drum intro on “Special,” and the crisp, punchy production from prolific studio veteran Will Yip immediately feels as if they’ve added thousands more colors into their palette. It’s an absolute firecracker of a first impression.
To a degree, every song on Are We All Angels is a balance of these two contrasts, the ratios constantly adjusting as they progress. They indulge in sugar-rush hooks on “B.A.B.E.”, a blistering cross-section of hardcore and pop-punk, as if the 1995 Epitaph Records roster had recorded the soundtrack to Clueless. There’s a denser approach to “Fantasy”, in which Kat Moss’ melodic vocals are front and center amid a maelstrom of guitars, answering her own call of “Is anybody out there?” with a “da-da-da-da-da-da.” “Not Hell, Not Heaven” is Scowl at peak infectiousness, a driving force of nature of a single that showcases Kat Moss as a vocalist beyond the growls but with fury to spare: “Listen, hear all hell unleashed/That’s the sound of reckoning.”
The visceral intensity that defined the band’s debut and earlier EPs remains an integral part of Scowl’s sound, if one that doesn’t monopolize on the spotlight. Moss offers brief flashes of her feral snarl against the gnarlier riffs of “Fleshed Out,” while “Tonight (I’m Afraid)” carves out a slower, deeper groove. But they save the nastiest for last, closing the album with a pit-swirling frenzy on the heavy and ill-tempered title track. It’s an exclamation point on an album that broadens their capabilities, and a nice reminder that they can still fuck shit up when the mood strikes, even if they still have a lot of exploring and expanding to do.
Label: Dead Oceans
Year: 2025
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Scowl : Are We All Angels
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