Beware of The Dogs is the first studio album from Australian artist Stella Donnelly. The new album features 13 tracks, some from her EP, Thrush Metal. The album covers various topics such as love and lust but also hits serious subjects like sexual assault and sexism. Her light girlish voice may strike some into thinking it’s just another fluffy indie pop/rock album, but when you get into the lyrics it can get pretty serious.

Each song has a similar sound, however  the tonal shift in themes can be quite jarring (the songs Old Man and Mosquito are great examples of this). There are also wide variations in the quality of each song. Songs like Tricks and Die really bring out the best in Stella’s style whereas the song Bistro in which the same lyrics are essentially repeated continuously. The weakest part of the record is definitely the instrumentals. They’re very simple and repetitive the majority of the time. Stella has the capacity to deliver powerful lyrics, but never has the noise to back it up.

Tricks is a song that gets its message across incredibly well. The song Boys Will Be Boys, despite the incredible emotion she presents in the piece, kind of falls flat for me. It seems more like a slam poetry session about someone who’s been sexually assaulted and blames herself for what happened. She brings up stereotypes like, “She was asking for it” and boys being trained to never take “No” for an answer. These lyrics may have been more impactful 10-20 years ago, but today they feel like old news.

Although it may seem like a negative review, I really do enjoy the record. I like just about every song to some extent (except Bistro, that song is hot garbage). Her vocal delivery and lyrics are solid, she just needs better instrumentals to accentuate her lines. The album is a solid 7 in my book with very strong potential. I’m incredibly excited to see what she’ll do next.