Another vinyl reissue of the L7 back catalog from Real Gone, this one released in 2022. I've really enjoyed going back and re-listening to much of the "alternative rock" of the late 1980s and early 90s, especially the music I listened to before the terms "alt-rock" and "grunge" became essentially meaningless and everybody started to codify everything. The result is a growing realization that there were a lot of killer noise-rock albums that were caught in the mix, even surprisingly me with how weird, wrecked, and heavy much of this stuff is. In hindsight, I'm actually scratching my head over how some of these bands and records managed to catch the attention of the major labels in the "post-Nirvana" feeding frenzy, and one of the main contenders I've been digging on recently is L7, a band whose "girl power" media image and audience-baiting shenanigans really overshadowed jus how noisy and fucked-up this band is. Always associated by the press with both the increasingly-nebulous "grunge" phenomenon and the Riot Grrrl movement of the early 1990s, L7 were clearly more concerned with damaging the listener with a heavier, more abrasive sonic assault and delving into more inwardly personal experience. Like I've mentioned in some of my other writing on this band, L7 were much more of an offbeat noise-rock / sludge-punk outfit than many gave 'em credit for. That sound is predominant on their fifth full-length The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum from 1997; although it isn't nearly as freaky and experimental as their later album Slap-Happy, this twelve-song set comes off as both the most accessible that L7 ever presented themselves, and a straight-up skull-smasher that would have fit right in on the Amphetamine Reptile roster.

Their earlier albums like L7 (1990), Hungry For Stink (1994), and Bricks Are Heavy (1992) dominated you with their grinding metallic riffs, squalls of fucked-up noise, and injections of psychedelia and power-pop , reminding me of what The Runaways might have sounded like if they had been obsessed with Black Sabbath. With The Beauty Process, the "pop" element more prominent. Mind you, L7 bang the doors down with the title track that is one minute of plodding, ultra-stomping Melvins-esque sludge. Goddamn awesome. From there it moves through roving sludge-pop rockers "Drama", "Bad Thing", and the weirdo sing-song chugger "Lorenza, Giada, Alessandra" that closes the album (each time again evoking that magic Runaways / Melvins alchemy) with massive guitar riffs, those wonderfully snotty screams and nasally singing, the goony backing harmonies, each one of these songs is a bulldozer smeared in weirdo guitar fuckery and demented shredding, oddball noise and FX pedal abuse. Gets a bit Sabbahian even on the roaring "Must Have More", one of my favorite songs on here. Monster riff on that one. This is The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum at its most clobbering.

And, of course, the band throws in some of their weird stylistic detours. "Off The Wagon" is a slightly twangy, country-fried power-pop number with some of the coolest alcoholic lyrics ever, and killer piano accompaniment. Total freakoid boogie. Acoustic strum and slide guitar shows uip to join the band's slow, bluesy downer-rocker "Me, Myself & I" that feels like an unsung Gen X'er anthem. but in the middle is the meat of Beauty Process: darker, more uptempo jammers like "I Need", but more noticeable are the almost Pixies-esque songs "Bitter Wine", "Non-Existent Patricia" and "Moonshine" , all of these tunes demonstrating a gluey pop undercurrent astride stripped-down riffing, a bunch of quirky melodies, and penetrating, sardonic lyrics (this band never got the credit they deserved for their humorous but totally acerbic wordplay and songwriting), often to immensely catchy effect. There's certainly a number of hummable songs on Beauty Process, more than on previous albums, but the sorcery here is placing those bubblegum alt-pop tunes right before a blast of attitudinal buzzsaw punk a la "The Masses Are Asses" . And iIn the mix you find all of the busted-up psychedelia, garage-band energy, spacey textures and horribly caustic guitar noise, squalls of decomposing random bashing about, and wicked stun-phasers that always accompany L7 through their expression of relaxed contempt and cranky humor.

This one sure isn't as crushing as Hungry For Stink or the previous albums. But I dig it. Alot. The band finally flexed their songwriting chops to come up with something more varied than the sledgehammer metalpunk of their earlier records. I'm humming all the way through it.