What year is it in the alternate universe where Bully lives? The group's debut album, Feels Like, may have been released in 2015, but danged if it doesn't sound exactly like it was created sometime during the late-'80s to mid-'90s window when indie rock went from an underground phenomenon to every twenty-something's birthright. In particular, Feels Like recalls the scruffy guitars, polarized dynamics, and smart-gal anger of early PJ Harvey and Pod-era Breeders, with any number of grunge acts informing the sloppy but fiercely purposeful velocity of the music, and the closing cut "Bully" even sounds like a tribute to Jennifer Trynin's indie-ish semi-hit "Better Than Nothing," right down to its blasé but provocative opening line. Vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Alicia Bognanno sings with a mixture of confessional whisper and primal howl that demonstrates she's learned well from her influences, and her bandmates -- Clayton Parker on guitar, Reece Lazarus on bass, and Stewart Copeland (not the guy from the Police) on drums -- sound at once bare-boned and full-bodied as they keep the arrangements simple but execute them with the requisite amount of muscle and distortion. The production of Feels Like even recalls the dry but forceful audio Steve Albini brought to his projects with Harvey and the Breeders; while Albini didn't work on the album, it was recorded at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, where Bognanno was once an intern, and as co-producer she emulates his trademark sound quite well. Feels Like is a promising debut album from a young band whose members are very good at what they do as they mature into a sound that's all their own. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

1		I Remember
2		Reason
3		Too Tough
4		Brainfreeze
5		Trying
6		Trash
7		Six
8		Picture
9		Milkman
10		Bully

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