*Disclaimer, some language may not be appropriate for younger readers*
Dilly Dally’s debut album, Sore, is full of heavy, melodic sounds and female angst. A soft grunge group from Toronto, Canada, the group’s founding members, Katie Monks and Liz Ball, formed a sisterly bond in high school over a mutual love of music. Monks paints fantastic pictures inside listeners’ heads with her hoarse vocals and vivid lyrics.
The first track on the album is, ‘Desire.’ It is full of heavy guitar sounds, and has a dark, romantic feel. Listeners cannot really understand Monks, but when they can, the lyrics tell a story about being unable to resist a woman’s desire. “Milky waves are fallin’ from her eyes, I get desire,” is my favorite line from the song. Monks is very descriptive, and her lyrics captivate the listener.
Next is, ‘Ballin Chain,’ which is filled with catchy chords and is very upbeat. I was hooked from the very beginning. I really dig Monks vocals when she shouts, “I miss you, I miss you.” She makes it almost impossible to resist jamming out.
‘Snake Head’ tells a darker tale, in which blood drips from between her legs and snakes come out of her head and turn people to stone. She says, “Man, this bitch is goin’ crazy, She’ll make you turn to stone.” Monks does not give two shits if she grosses anyone out with her tale of a menstruating Medusa woman.
Monks loves telling stories with her songs and, ‘The Touch,’ is a prime example. She describes a woman’s healing hands and mocks how female sexuality is sometimes portrayed as a type of magic.
‘Next Gold,’ is very upbeat and has lots of memorizing chorus, which makes it very easy to jam to.
‘Purple Rage’ has a very cool sound, but it doesn’t have the same rock sound like the rest of the album. The vocals are less hoarse, which means that you can actually understand what Monks says throughout the song.
For the next track they slow it down a bit. ‘Get to You’ is very mellow compared to most of the other tracks on the album. It is full of distorted guitar sounds and melodic vocals as Monks sings, “My heart won’t heal.”
‘Witch Man’ combines heavy guitar sounds with Monks actually howling on the track as she eerily cries, “I’m on his side, I’m on his side.”
‘Green’ is not very different from most of the tracks on this album, just more of Monks jumbled screams and guitar sounds.
Surprisingly, ‘Ice Cream’ has little to do with the actual delicious
frozen treat we all enjoy, but more about the sun and crying. It has lots of catchy chords, and is very easy to rock out to.
Lastly, there is ‘Burned by the Cold,’ which is probably the only bad song on this whole album. In my opinion, it was too slow compared to every other song. On the other hand, it is easily the only one you can mostly understand Monks.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this album. Dilly Dally has a very unique sound, thanks to Monks incredibly different (in a good way) voice, and that helps them stand out from others. I highly recommend you give it a listen.
