Review: Trophy Wife, "Patience Fury"

Trophy wife
Patience Fury
Punk Rock
4/5 stars

It seems as soon as a band is described as “female rockers,” there’s an instant barrier in people’s minds. It’s as if rock music by women always brings that cringe-inducing “chick rock” connotation, like Alanis Morisette’s whine. But luckily, Trophy Wife is here to fix all misconceptions, with a sound nowhere near as demure as its moniker.

Guitarist Diane Foglizzo and drummer Katy Otto create a brand of heavy, loud, fast and yes, like the title, furious grunge rock. “Silence won’t protect you,” the pair sings on opener “Sister Outsider.” Trophy Wife certainly practices what it preaches. The band favors rapid-fire, steady drums over fluid and fierce guitar licks. Singing sometimes together and sometimes separate, Foglizzo and Otto are equally adept at ear-piercing screams as they are with melodic harmonies.

But don’t let such a headbanger of an album detract from the strength of the lyrics. They’re sparse and abrupt — written from the point of view of marginalized people, they pack a punch. The duo tackles communication problems on “Default,” singing, “I don’t want to default to strangers based on fear/ when the walls are closing in, I fight the urge to disappear.”

On “Pregnancy,” what should be a momentous occasion is made sinister when the pair scream that it “was a choice made together,” but a happy family is doubtful when we learn, “he can come and go, he can leave and stay / got himself a trophy put it on display.”

And although most of the lyrics are shouted or screamed, it’s not because Trophy Wife is angry. Trophy Wife just wants you to shut up and listen.

It’s remarkably intricate and full of surprises too, from Foglizzo’s and Otto’s sudden harmonies at the end of the originally instrumental “Five,” to the delicate chimes at the close of album-ender “Repetition.”

“Multi-faceted,” “intelligent” and “punk” might not often go together in the description of an album, but Trophy Wife proves it’s possible.