It ain't a fuckin' freakshow.
Let's just be totally frank from the start: a female singer/guitarist is as common as Man Utd shirts, rainy days, swearing youths and heartburn. The gentle guitar strumming with sugary vocals sweetly riding on a melodic-pop bandwagon, from a middle-class lass making so extra cash whilst at Uni. However, Sophie Porter would most likely be seen pushing the aforementioned singers to the floor and smashing their guitars over the heads of the nearest seller of the 'Big Issue'. She strums her guitar sure, but there is a Punk edge and an integrity that shines through like a female Frank Turner, and a little Billy Bragg.
First track Anti-Social is a nice sing-a-long track with some great observations of kids at chipshops, alleyways smelling of piss and parents getting stoned with the neighbours. This isn't all dilemmas of love through rose tinted glasses, which takes us nicely to Domestic which is the harsh reality of domestic abuse with the repeated line of, "Is it fear // or is it love?". Staples starts off with some great lines of, "Well he's got staples in his neck // and her a dagger through the heart // It never rains it always pours // We're in a fuckin' hospital // It ain't a fuckin' freakshow." It's a lovely song that speeds along at a fast pace without letting up on the creative visuals painted by the clever lyrics. Definitely my favourite song here. Then the EP prematurely finishes with the last song, We Know which is a more melodic number that still fails to let up on the grime of reality.
Sophie Porter has given us something a little special here. It is slightly in the vein of a street poet, with hints of folk wrapped in a punk ethos. Slightly quirky, and certainly daring, this is not what I was expecting, it's much, much better than that. Great stuff.