The Regrettes: Feel Your Feelings Fool! Review

By LeeAnn Cota
Music Journalist

Artist: The Regrettes
Album: Feel Your Feelings Fool!
Release Date: January 13, 2017
Website: http://www.theregrettes.com/

The Regrettes’ debut album, Feel Your Feelings Fool!, will pull you in with its energy-filled songs about boys, lust, angst, and weaknesses. Originating from Los Angeles, this band will have you wanting to dance one minute then cry the next with their range that reaches farther lengths than your typical LA punk band. It’s also refreshing to see more and more women leading the way in the music scene. The quartet that makes up The Regrettes is fronted by singer and guitarist Lydia Night, with Genessa Gariano on guitar, Sage Nicole on bass, and Maxx Morando on drums. The band’s journey has definitely been a wild one, which took off with the help of the album’s producer, Mike Elizondo, bringing them on board to Warner Bros. Records.

“A Living Human Girl“ is the second track on the album and is a real look into the mind of carefree, feminist Lydia Night. There’s no hiding the apparent truth that she is not interested in impressing anyone; she writes about having acne, body hair, and stretch marks. Her attitude and raw expression resemble a lovely mix between fellow LA-based bands Cherry Glazerr and Best Coast. The song also mentions being moody, lazy, crazy, angry, and sometimes happy but also sometimes not. Night feels her emotions wholly but doesn’t want you to expect her to stay set in that one feeling.

A little more into the album is the eighth track, “Pale Skin.” This song is almost like an intermission for the typically loud and in your face pace of music. The song takes it slow at first with a wind-like tone progressively getting louder. Then the guitar sets in and Night’s voice steadily takes over as she begins to reveal her more vulnerable side. With lyrics like, “There’s tears streaming from my eyes, streaming from your lies,” Night confesses how weak she feels from being consumed by the emotion she feels about this other person. As a listener, I was able to feel the emotion flow from her softened voice, Gariano’s alluring riffs, Morando’s invigorating drumming and Nicole’s bass to tie it in. It evokes a kind of hurt you didn’t even realize you had in you.

I recommend checking out this young and immensely talented group. The Regrettes are surely leaving an impression with their clear passion for expression and music. As mentioned in this interview, the band blends their common influences and individual tastes and develop new ideas that their producer strongly encouraged. In addition, they are vocal about being extremely appreciative of the opportunities they have been presented with in the past year alone and all the people that have aided in their growth and bond as a band. They are planning to lyrically collaborate more for their next album, so who knows how much they’ll expand until then. Tour dates for their current tour can be found here.