There’s a certain kind of confidence you can’t fake, and Sister Madds have it in spades. The Glasgow five-piece drop their debut EP Are You Hungry? today, and it doesn’t feel like a tentative first step. It feels like a band kicking the door open and dragging you inside with them.
Across four tracks, Sister Madds lean into fizzy alt-rock, punchy pop instincts and a streak of punk attitude that keeps everything from getting too polished. Producer Jamie Holmes, known for his work with Hayley Kiyoko, Lucia and the Best Boys, Gerry Cinnamon and Bully, keeps the edges sharp without sanding down the personality. The result hits that sweet spot: big hooks, tight structures and just enough bite.
There are flashes of late-2000s songwriting in the DNA. The conversational snark recalls Lily Allen and Kate Nash, while the crunching guitars nod toward Paramore’s more angsty moments. But Sister Madds don’t come across as students of the era. They sound like they’ve absorbed it, shaken it up and made it louder.
Previous single “Table Manners” still lands like a live-wire anthem, all sugar rush and side-eye, while “Get Rich, Get Girls, You’ll Be Happy” crackles with distortion and wry commentary, skewering shallow ambition with a grin.
Then there’s “Nepobaby,” which doubles down on satire without losing its radio-ready sheen, pairing bratty charm with a chorus built to stick. Sister Madds take a swipe at entitlement culture with a wink rather than a snarl, letting crunchy guitars and tight rhythms do most of the talking. It’s slick, it’s pointed, and it proves the band know exactly how to dress a critique up as a hook-heavy anthem.
What really lands with this new EP is the sense of movement. You can almost see the sweat and chaos of their live shows baked into these recordings. Maddie Cassidy’s vocals cut clean through the noise, feeling equally playful and cutthroat..“We really want people to feel how much fun we had making this,” the band say. “Whether they want to rock out to it, laugh along with the lyrics, or reflect on their own experiences, we hope this EP helps our audience feel the same way we did when creating it.”
That joy has already translated offstage. After near sold-out UK dates, major festival slots and a fully sold-out Scottish headline run in 2024, Sister Madds headline King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow tonight.
For a band asking if you’re hungry, they’re serving at exactly the right moment.
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