THE LINDA LINDAS - No Obligation

Anyone who encountered the Linda Lindas only in passing, stumbling across their first video by chance, might have suspected they were dealing with a quirky, substance-free all-girl teen gimmick — an impression disproved by a debut album that won over much of the audience and critics alike, as well as some illustrious musicians. The problem, as always, is living up to expectations with a successful follow-up, which is no small feat given the many examples of bands deflating already by their second album.

Fortunately, that's not the case here: on "No Obligation" the girls come out swinging, riding a wave of guitar tornadoes, frenzied rhythms and a scorching vocal on the opening title track, only to immediately backtrack with the mainstrindie turn of the following "All In My Head", equipped with a hook perfect for new generations of listeners, but one that might make hardcore, old-school rockers wrinkle their noses.

These first two opening tracks exemplify the band's two "extreme" sides: on one hand the angry, punk version, and on the other the one with melodic hooks that flirt with, if not outright embrace, radio-friendliness. In other cases, the Linda Lindas opt for a wise middle ground, drawing on late-70s sounds with fragments of disco-punk à-la Blondie ("Lose Yourself") or powering their sound with tight Cars-school riffs ("Too Many Things", "Cartographers"), but overall the ghost of bands like the Runaways and The Go-Go's is hard to shake off.

They try without much success, reaching for different solutions and slipping badly on the (at the very least avoidable) Latin waltz of "Yo Me Estreso", while doing decidedly better within their comfort zone, where they update the melodic freshness of 60s girl-groups for the indie-rock era on a "Don't Think" worthy of the Breeders.

The album flies by in an enjoyable electric-melodic rollercoaster, and in the second half the garage-punk bomb of “Resolution” and the hardcore dynamite of “Excuse Me” go off, blasts that only partly manage to destabilize the pop framework of an album that's less aggressive and more radio-friendly than its predecessor.

With the surprise factor gone but creative urgency still intact, Linda Lindas press on consistently, tied to the same inescapable reference points and without too many revolutions, putting together a sophomore effort that confirms a talent worth watching over time, as we wait to see whether they'll evolve beyond a formula that's by now well tried and tested.

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17/05/2025