Milk Teeth, Milk Teeth
Music For Nations

Milk Teeth’s debut album was titled Vile Child, and it was a fittingly angry, churning selection of songs. It was a fizzing set of coming-of-age anthems. It’s perfect, then, that their second album is eponymously titled – it seems like Milk Teeth have been in freefall but landed on their feet and not only found themselves, but really got to know themselves.

Vocalist and creative force Becky Blomfield reflects on a professionally and personally challenging four years, accompanied by a completely overturned line-up from her debut, and a sense of jaded optimism – “I’m not fine now, but I wanna be.” she sings on the first track with trudging purpose. The record feels like it all wants to be end-credits songs, desperately striving for the end where everything’s okay, but accepting the reality that that just never happens – an end-credits revelation in itself. It’s ironic that Milk Teeth have previously released a track called Owning My Okayness, because it feels like on MT they get to own the fact that they’re not okay – and that’s powerful.

Navigating hard times is far from easy, and Milk Teeth isn’t a neatly-tied-up presentation of coming out the other side – it’s a messy internal view of pushing all the way through. It’s dizzy with confusion in Circles’ rapid, insistent guitar riffs; it seethes with anger in Dilute; it bubbles with anxiety and blooms with optimism. Blomfield’s emotional delivery is outstanding – every drop of what she’s singing about is tangible in every single note: the pain of reminiscing whilst trying to push forward, the pinwheel of every feeling under the sun, and set against music that’s an faultlessly woven punk-rock soundscape from Sharks’ grinding bassline to the backing vocals that chip in from scene gem Em Foster to climbing, shrieking choruses.

Milk Teeth stick with a dense, but not too heavy, grunge sound – a sound they seem to have perfected, that along with Blomfield’s voice make the Milk Teeth sound unmistakeable. Destroyer and Dilute are as heavy as the trio go on MT, but that doesn’t mean other tracks lack intensity. Flowers and Circles’ upbeatness makes them dead certs for fan favs – the thought of seeing these live and leaping about in the moshpits that are sure to ensue makes us even more devastated that tours are on hold.

Milk Teeth is a joyous listen, because it’s just so real. Every moment, every lyric, every strum and every drumbeat is saturated with the pure life that was poured into it. It’s an expertly woven tapestry of experiences that are simultaneously deeply personal and universally relatable – a truly genuine piece of art.

Milk Teeth is out Friday 27th via Music For Nations.