Fightmilk: No Souvenirs – Album Review

Fightmilk return with No Souvenirs, their third album following 2021’s Contender with a slightly grittier and harder sound via Fika Recordings and INH Records.

I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again, but I fucking love Fightmilk. For those unfamiliar, the quartet are Lily, Alex, Healey and Nick, a London-based combo who write sweaty, loud, shouty songs after forming in the beer gardens of South London in 2015

I played their debut, 2018’s Not With That Attitude continually throughout the pandemic, loving the sarcastic barbs and witty lyrics underpinned by a tight indie-pop sound. Then came 2021’s Contender, songs dissing the likes of Bezos and Musk whilst calling out misogyny, with an indie-rock sound.

Over the last 8 years they’ve perfected their chaotic, melodic brand of joy and rage-filled pop trademarked by Lily’s full-throated yelling and the bands sparkling guitar riffs. Now in their early 30’s they’ve outgrown their angsty mid-twenties to deliver some poignant numbers whilst keeping their tongue firmly placed in cheek. As with their first releases the album, was recorded at Dean Street Studios in Soho, produced by Keith TOTP and engineered by Sam Hogg and Tom Quigley over a handful of weekends in 2022/23.

With their previous label on hiatus the band were under no pressure to deliver to a deadline so had the opportunity to make the best album they could before speaking to prospective labels. No Souvenirs, whilst still indie at its core, has the band delivering a grittier and slightly heavier sound in part to the band becoming more collaborative as writers, Healey’s DIY punk influence is coming through more as is Nick’s heavier rock influences. After being together as a band for a decade, it’s inevitable the sound has developed. As Alex explains, ‘As far as we’re concerned, they just sound like Fightmilk – and that’s a really nice place to be nearly a decade in.’

We get this from the off, the opening track Summer Bodies. This was the first track released to mark the bands return. It questions patriarchal society’s ridiculous and ever-changing expectations of women’s bodies and the futile quest to ‘be sexy’ as well as a fierce ode to self-love. 

That Thing You Did, also a single, took around eighteen months to nail. Initially Nick suggested the band should cover the track That Thing You Do (something I would love to hear) and things moved on from there. Lily explains, “I wrote the song from the viewpoint of somebody who’s just trying to move on from a bad relationship, but the ‘souvenirs’ in this case just won’t leave. As we were writing it, the meaning started oozing out without realising”, adding “It’s about refusing to forgive somebody. Just because somebody says sorry, it doesn’t mean you have to accept it.”

In her alternate persona Captain Handsome, Lily once released a song called If I Had A Dog. This has come back to bite her on the arse, literally on the way to being a bridesmaid.  Canine opens with the line, ‘I got bit by a dog’, however as the song progresses, whilst literal, there seems to be a deeper meaning, maybe it’s the owner and not the dog to blame for its actions… a reflection on cause and effect? There’s a section in the song which Lily promises on the forthcoming tour will lead to crowd interaction, testing the audience’s knowledge of the names of famous pooches!

The anthemic Back From Tour is perhaps the most ‘Fightmilk’ sounding of all the tracks, with a random ‘woo’ thrown in for good measure. Written by Alex after coming off tour, considers the juggling of band life and domesticity. I imagine feelings of the point where what may once have been a laugh with your mates begins to start feeling like a job…

Recent single Yearning And Pining has got one of the best videos ever to be recorded exclusively on a Ring doorbell.  A tongue in cheek love song, described in a way only Lily can as ‘A two-minute country-punk biscuit about having the cosmic horn for someone. Being so lusty that you give yourself an asthma attack. We’ve all been lost in the sauce of an all-encompassing crush, and this song is for those currently drowning in it.’

Banger #7 is once of the first tracks to have been written for the album and alongwith My Best Me was played live on their 2022 tour. The latter another song about being sacked from being a bridesmaid, albeit a different occasion as being bitten by a dog… 

The title track, No Souvenirs, is the most poignant and is the foundation of the album sitting at the halfway point.  Alex suggests this is the best song they’ve ever written, and I wouldn’t disagree. Lily explains, “This is a song about surviving a loved one’s death and what you do with the leftovers. In 2013 a close friend of mine died and it messed me up for a really long time. It took ten years to write about it in a way that felt right, because I kept trying to articulate him and couldn’t get it down on paper,” continuing, “So instead, this song is about that balancing act of honouring a life whilst also trying to hold onto little bits of it. I kept everything – notes, letters, texts, even a packet of instant flan mix he sent me once as a weird joke – but at the back of my mind is the knowledge that it’s just stuff that I’ve given power. Souvenirs lose their meaning over time. The memory of him is really the only important thing. It’s a sad song about death but I wanted it to sound huge and final, like I’m putting something to bed.”

Although there are harder songs on the album there are also tracks such as Inferno, which are a little more restrained, in the same way as Girl Don’t Want To Have Fun was on the previous release. Eating For Two gives the band an opportunity to rock out, and Lily the chance to yell ahead of the closing couple of tracks.

Paddling Pool, Lily suggests is her highlight. It does have elements of her solo work; however, she says, “It’s a step away from our usual big grungy pop fare, and we got to experiment with some really floaty, quieter sounds. It was nice to do Lucy Dacus singing instead of Courtney Love singing. ‘That Thing You Did’ has my favourite chorus, though. I never thought we’d write an earworm.”

The album closes on 30, rounding things off nicely. With all members of Fightmilk the same side of 30, it marks the end of a chapter but also a new beginning with the realisation that many of the hang ups and expectations that people put on you achieving things by a certain age don’t really matter at all.

Having listened to this album for the last few weeks I’m still undecided what my favourite track is, or which I’d suggest is the standout. The same happened when I reviewed Contender. I think Alex hits the nail on the head when he says they just sound like Fightmilk, which is reason enough to buy this album, and play on repeat… 

RSVP here for the No Souvenirs Listening Party on Tuesday 12th at 8pm and catch Fightmilk live in November.

Nov 15
 Paper Dress Vintage
, London
Nov 16
 The Blue Moon
, Cambridge
Nov 22
 The Oast Community Centre
, Rainham
Nov 27 
Sidney & Matilda
, Sheffield
Nov 28 Stereo, Glasgow
Nov 29 
The Castle Hotel, Manchester

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