The Linda Lindas – ‘No Obligation’ review: exhilarating punk that will mobilise anyone who listens to it

10 October, 2024

The Linda Lindas

“You don’t owe no demonstration / Who cares about their validation?!” growls the title track of The Linda Lindas’ sophomore album, ‘No Obligation’. The punchy two-minute anthem wastes no time in asserting the band’s staunch political stance: we’re not here to do what you tell us, and as young women, you’ve been telling us a lot. With a quick-paced, Amyl and the Sniffers-like riff, they taunt their listeners to even try and question their own self-determination.

READ MORE: Five things we learned from our In Conversation video chat with The Linda Lindas

The sentiment is much the same as on their 2022 debut, ‘Growing Up’, though greatly evolved – it’s more gutsy but also more self-aware. They’re distinctive for how they blend the political sloganeering of Riot Grrrl with the emo sensibilities of pop-punk, symbolising a more creative approach to the former and a necessary political shift in the latter. Tracks like ‘All In My Head’ and ‘Don’t Think’ take the perspective of – rightfully – pissed-off teenage girls trying to navigate their lives while white supremacist, patriarchal powers kick them down and shove them into a box.

In their more vulnerable moments, they raise questions about how to form an identity outside of what is expected of them and how to live in adherence with their political values as young feminists. Take the softer ‘Once Upon A Time,’ in which the band assert, “I’m good at being angry… I’m good” before the chorus breaks out: “It’s not about screaming / It’s not about tryna hide / I’m tryna see how they see me / I’m tryna see what they like.” How can we, for example, allow ourselves to be accommodating and kind without being taken advantage of for our positioning as young women?

Where other pop-punk revivalists – like Olivia Rodrigo – might only allude to the political conditions that make this the experience of being a young woman, The Linda Lindas are much more in your face about it, intertwining every experience they write about with the bigger picture. Take ‘Too Many Things’, where in one breath they’re lamenting the amount of pressure they’re under – “Too many creases I’m too small / Soon I will be nothing at all,” they share before they assert: “Can’t you see I’m tryin’ to be awake?!” – and questioning how much change we can incite as an individual. It’s invigorating and the kind of clever teenage angst that made Winona Ryder a ‘90s icon – kinda emo, very smart, self-aware and sarcastic.

With accelerated guitars and rapid drum beats, there are obvious homages to the best bands of their chosen genres: think Babes in Toyland, Bikini Kill, The Breeders and Paramore. ‘Lose Your Self’ and ‘Resolution/Revolution’ feel like an expansion of the political pop-punk that fellow Californians – and their recent tourmates – Green Day mastered. Swirling together skate-punk drums with breathless paranoia and spooky gang vocals, the band embodies the us-versus-them horror of America’s political circumstances in tracks that could’ve slotted comfortably on ‘American Idiot’. “They think we cannot / Too scared to give thought / Us and them, we’re not on the same wavelength,” they rally on ‘Resolution/Revolution’.

‘No Obligation’ isn’t just a hopeless depiction of the States, though (hey, there’s a ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic feature!). It’s an exhilarating punk album with the intention of mobilising those who listen to it. There’s rage, sadness, delight and bitterness within every sound and syllable, and from within that cocktail of feelings is a charged devotion to creating change.