Voodoo Hussy's debut single, "Say You Love Me"

Released on November 29^th, ‘Say You Love Me’ is the debut single from Voodoo Hussy, an ‘art-punk’ band lead by ex-Big Brother housemate, Shabby Elliot-Katchadourian. Now I wasn’t going to mention the whole Big Brother thing, but then their press release does say, ‘featuring Shabby from Big Brother’, something which I think will wind her up as much as it does me. Following Pete Bennett and more recently, Sam Pepper, releasing a single after appearing on Big Brother has become a little bit frowned upon, buy luckily for Shabby and Voodoo Hussy, this is a single by some talented musicians.

A grubby and distorted guitar riff slides into the song, filled with powerful bass and a good battering of a drum kit. Shabby asks ‘are you ready for this?’ and yeah, I’d say this song’s something to prepare yourself for. Yes it’s noisy, and yes it’s a bit bratty, but who’s to say there’s anything wrong with that?

Punk’s one of the few genres that’s managed to distance itself from music enough not to be affected by the constantly changeable hipsters, and for what it is, ‘Say You Love Me’ does exactly what it should. It kicks off a bit and bounces off the walls, fighting its way and commanding your attention without losing that interesting sense of emotional nonchalance which punk does so well, and Voodoo Hussy seem to have mastered.

I sort of wish the B-side to this single wasn’t a radio edit of the same song, because it’s always nice to feel like you’ve got something extra, but then it doesn’t surprise me that a band with this much energy and excitement are eager to release a single sooner rather than later. Shabby’s said before in an interview that they ‘genuinely f***ing love what [they] do’, which is something that I think is got across well through ‘Say You Love Me’. This song will be an absolute winner live, though it will be interesting to see how the backing vocals work as Shabby does them herself for the single. At times it feels a little bit like we’re listening to Shabby and her band, but then she’s the frontwoman and I think that come to a live performance, the strong relationship between members is impossible to miss.

‘Take heed you lovestruck fool’, the lyrics sing introspectively, and in the second chorus, there’s an underlying string section - something delicate in amongst all the anguish that prevails especially in the outro. The inhales and exhales of the strings let the angst of the last three minutes or so hang in the air - an unexpectedly excellent juxtaposition.

So it’s not filled with the same quirks and acoustic guitars which seem to be so achingly popular at the moment, but ‘Say You Love Me’ is catchy, honest and impossible to ignore. Yes, Shabby was on Big Brother, but the track speaks for itself and the fact that the girl singing it happened to be in a house for three weeks is irrelevant. An angsty teen of a track, ‘Say You Love Me’ is available for download on the 29^th.

By Rosie