Bully - Sugaregg

The Guardian 80

(Sub Pop)
Roars of primal pain are spliced with honeyed crooning on Alicia Bognanno’s exciting solo album, a candid portrait of her bipolar diagnosis

Loud and quiet, harmony and dissonance, soft and heavy: rock music has long mined thrills from binary juxtaposition – but it was grunge that sharpened a sonic contrast into a generic calling card. Thirty years after the fact, Minnesota’s Alicia Bognanno is still tinkering with the era’s dynamics: her work is built from the interplay between melodious guitar lines and roars of primal pain, between honeyed crooning and brutal shredding. Never unpleasantly grating, never cloyingly sweet, it’s a watertight formula – as well as an extremely well-worn one.

Pitchfork 77

Reintroducing her band as a solo project, Alicia Bognanno follows the tried-and-true: sticky hooks, shoutalong lyrics, and walloping, caffeinated riffs.