Single review by Vince Leigh
Glitoris returns with Lickety Split, the first track off the band’s forthcoming sophomore album.
Glitoris, with its commitment to social justice, has continually leveraged its influence to highlight issues and support grassroots entities within the LGBTQIA+, Indigenous, and environmental sectors.
The new track, recorded with Anna Laverty (Courtney Barnett, Camp Cope), is a celebration of sex workers and sex positivity. From its brief percussive introduction to the vocal harmony resolve, Lickety Split features an assortment of approaches: the humorous, the quirky, and the theatrical.
These attributes merge with a ponderous rhythmic pulse, a varied guitar palette, operatic vocal tendencies, and a lyric that relies on lists and a cheeky subversion.
During one’s initial listen, this amalgamation sounds more like a tempered inundation, with all manner of aural patterns and textures coming at you. There are flashpoints that come and go, with each section seemingly empowered by the preceding parts.
Once we reach the end, we’re left with a need to repeat the experience.
During all the excitement, we miss some of the playfulness of the lyric, the sheer comic grandiosity of the lead vocal and the overall dynamism of the track.
The production is sultably warm and concentrated, giving the track an edge and a shine, with the chorus providing the best example. Said chorus also contains an element worth considering telling us:
Hot damn! This is your lucky day! You can’t be all work and no play.
Who can really argue with that assertion?
However, the chorus concludes with, ‘Get on your knees and lick it’, so the point of view here is intriguing, turning the tables on what one might expect.
And so it goes; surprise perhaps Glitoris‘ very intent.
Indeed, Lickety Split surprises in all manner of ways. It’s not the straight-ahead punk mayhem of some of their previous releases though not entirely unlike other tracks such as The Policy, during which a stylistically broader model is utilised.
But again, Lickety Split highlights the band’s audacious creative focus and power.
You can hear this track on Bandcamp, Spotify or Apple Music
Grab your tix to their Canberra shows here: The Basement and The Hive Queanbeyan
