Life after loss and bouncing back

Alicia Bognanno’s fourth full-length album as Bully, Lucky for You, is full of fire and heart to say the very least. The raw emotion and honesty expressed by Bognanno would leave most artists exhausted, which seems to be what is driving her to create such music. The album, released in early June, is riddled with mentions of impermanence and loss, in many forms, all of which seem to have emotionally motivated the content of the album both musically and otherwise.

The bookends of the album both set the tone and leave you stunned. With distorted vocals, incredibly hot bass and guitar, blasting drums and a strong message, Bully opens with “All I Do,” a nostalgic anthem about missing the way things used to be and being without the feelings that make up your memories.

Similarly in terms of emotion, the album rounds off with “All This Noise” and the bombastic vocals return, this time with a raging message to listeners. Bognanno, through her vocal tone and lyricism, expresses how fed up she is with the state of the world and country and how tired she is of waiting for change to happen regarding gun reform, women’s rights, climate change and the rest of the issues that our country and our world is dealing with, all of which have yet to be addressed.

In-between these fiery tracks are eight others that put on full display how Bognanno has been experiencing different forms of love and loss and how she is recovering from them. Multiple tracks, including “Days Move Slow,” and “A Wonderful Life” touch on the loss of her dog, Mezzi, which she explained to NME in an interview, saying “I waited my whole life for the bond and irreplaceable companionship I had with Mezzi.” She also includes tracks even more personal in nature, like “Hard to Love,” with lyrics that hurt for anyone who has felt unaccepted due to their gender or sexuality. Bully makes it very accessible to relate for anyone with emotions and musically, she doesn’t hold back either.

The instrumental aspects of the album tend to be on the simpler side, in a sophisticated manner. By utilizing mostly just guitar, bass and drums, it leaves room for Bognanno’s very special vocals to shine through. With both gritty and sweet tones, Bognanno uses her voice very artistically, always matching the emotion of the song and even breaking industry norms, like in “A Love Profound,” which features several spoken word lines of lyrics rather than sung the whole way through. The other instruments all have their respective moments as well, with deep bass power chords to begin “Change Your Mind” and tasteful drum grooves and fills on tracks like “How Will I Know.”

Fans of 90s and 2000s punk rock and grunge will really find themselves enjoying the sonic landscape of the album with its constantly distorted instrumentals that reflect the angst of the vocals and lyrics. Not only that, but the album is very intelligent compositionally. Many of the tracks have several layers to them, like “Days Move Slow” which touches on monotony and how life is repeating itself and to drive the point home, the chord changes remain the same throughout the entire track. So much personality and love went into this record and it shows.