All-female punk trailblazers The Linda Lindas have released their sophomore album No Obligation via Epitaph Records. Their latest musical effort follows their 2022 debut album Growing Up, also released via Epitaph Records.
The Linda Lindas were a well-loved group well before their full-length debut, as they embodied a light-hearted ferocity and bold, youthful determination that hadn’t been seen since the likes of The Runaways. While their debut album conveyed the rage and adversity of being a young woman in her youth, Their new record continues to express these complicated feelings. However, they are now carried out with a heightened level of maturity and self-reflection.
While Growing Up may express the initial anger, confusion, and passion that comes with a youth tantalized by misogyny, self-esteem, and identity, No Obligation now shows a deeper understanding of how these concepts impact not only ourselves but our relationships and the world around us.
Not only do The Linda Lindas embody a deeper level of introspection on this record, but their sound has been raised to entirely new levels. The overall production on the album is more polished and pristine compared to that of Growing Up, and The Linda Lindas lean into more classic punk, classic rock, and emo-punk influences than the indie vibes that decorated their debut.
The album opens with the title track, a hard-hitting earworm adorned with a Joan Jett-esque flair of non-conformity. It is the perfect opener for the album, as its heavy guitars and classic punk elements excite listeners and prepare them for No Obligation’s overall theme of rejecting the patriarchy and conventional standards for women. This intro also firmly establishes an increased confidence that the group seems to harness on this record.
Like the intro track, the following song “All In My Head” is a definitive highlights on the album, as these two songs well establish that The Linda Linda’s over the last few years have retained both their soft and hard sides just as successfully. As expressed on this track, nobody knows you better than you may know yourself, and this is further instilled as the song also shows how much more introspective the band’s lyrics have become. It seems now that the band, as expressed in this song, is now taking ownership of the feelings they first began to recognize on Growing Up.
On songs such as “Lose Yourself” and “Too Many Things,” The Linda Lindas lean heavily into 2010s Emo Pop-Punk influences, adding further diversity to this well-rounded album. While the former track contemplates the idea of putting on a different identity when around certain people, and thus losing yourself, the band ponders the idea of not just their relationship with themselves, but their personal relationships with society as a whole.
Songs such as “Too Many Things” and “Yo Me Estreso” (the latter featuring none other than Weird Al Yankovic and serving as an older sister to Growing Up’s “Cuantas Veces”) are fueled heavily by feelings of stress and anxiety – common emotions to face in young adulthood. While Growing Up touches on these feelings, No Obligation faces them with a more desperate and somber tone. The daydreaming is over. The fact of the matter is that anxiety doesn’t go away, and growing up sucks.
However, this painful truth is balanced by more lighthearted tracks on the record. “Once Upon A Time” is highly reminiscent of the band’s first album, and “Nothing Would Change” is intensely packed with eighties New Wave energy. Balance these tracks with the edge of “No Obligation” and hardcore Classic Rock vibes of “Excuse Me” and the result is a beautifully raw and well-rounded musical effort.
No Obligation addresses man vs world and man vs self, but it also shows the concept of man vs man through the song “Cartographers.” In this song, the lyrics are saying that, although two people may not know where they are headed, they can still help one another lead the way (as long as the beat stays strong). Alternatively, the following track “Don’t Think” serves as a great B side to “Cartographers. While the former speaks of anxiety and personal relationships, the latter speaks through that other voice in your brain that tells you to do whatever you want and stop overthinking, as people will talk about you either way. Trust me, the voice says. I’ve been around the block a few times.
The latter half of the album finishes off strong, and the record truly never wavers throughout. “Resolution/Revolution” encapsulates the signature unbridled fury that The Linda Lindas have become praised for, reminding us that revolution is necessary when one makes it a point to never accept or propose a resolution towards your happiness. “Nothing Would Change” serves as a refreshing Go-Go’s-infused cleanser right before “Excuse Me,” arguably one of No Obligation’s finest highlights.
On “Excuse Me,” The Linda Lindas carry the same rebellious strength that carried them through their early hit song “Racist, Sexist Boy.” The song talks about how the patriarchy encourages profiling and labels towards women and other marginalized individuals and further instills the ultimate message that no young girl should have to adhere to these pressures, poor treatment, or labels.
Along with a killer message, the song stands out as one of the most musically advanced on the album. It starts as classic Punk, and the outro – albeit not very long – includes a catchy and smooth guitar, bass and drum beat that’s very rock ‘n’ roll. While the outro isn’t necessarily very long or complicated, it shows a new trick that The Linda Lindas have had up their sleeve and truly takes the record to new heights. If there were one critique for this album, it would be that the album chose to end on “Stop,” a more lighthearted and punchy punk track, than the exciting and brutal “Excuse Me.”
Within their second full-length album, listeners can find The Linda Lindas at a new level of maturity, both emotionally and sonically. Lyrics are more existential, the overall production is more polished, and further vulnerability is expressed, making No Obligation an incredibly exciting and standout album from punk’s favorite rising stars. Growing Up found the band at a time when they were first discovering the harsh brutality of, well, growing up. Now, nearly two years later, No Obligation finds the band reflecting on these same emotions and outside obstacles that haven’t gone away – and never will. The Linda Lindas are angry, but they’re positive, determined, and insanely talented, which makes their music so refreshing and exciting.
Buy the album here:
https://thelindalindas.ffm.to/noobligation
8 / 10
JUSTICE PETERSON
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