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SHE’S SO COOL
Wet Kiss
Written by Olivia J. Bennett
Edited by Isabella Trimboli
Published in print by The Big Issue AU
Issue #663 | 10 June 2022
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Melbourne's beatnik beauties Wet Kiss' debut She's So Cool is a major success. Lead singer and lyricist Brenna O plays with her enunciation, giving ordinary words a new grit. "I'm a jerk/Nothing's changing, I'm a jerk”, the siren warbles on ‘Jerk', accompanied by playful backup vocals and sparse, jangly guitar. The album flirts with all corners of rock, from the dissonant glam of ‘Nobody Has to Know’, to the 60s malady of 'Honey Walks Away’, to the post-punk cold sweat of 'Ugly', where Brenna moans, "My face changes, and nothing's the same". Sliding between genres with ease, the album marries the opulent drama of the 1920s with the 2020s' against-everything attitude. "She's a babe/And she hates me," Brenna sings in ‘Like a Flower', before a sobering cut to "Not unlike your studio drawings". On She's So Cool, Wet Kiss gives us an insight into the band's uncanny valley of the dolls, toying with words and sounds with glee, irreverence and charm.