Review - When Things Grow Teeth by Wick Bambix

The followup to 2023's The Pariah's Promise is fairly anticipated LP for fans of Wick Bambix's solo music or her band, Bambix, the 00's and teens Dutch punk band which experienced success overseas but never really caught on in the United States. While The Pariah's Promise was a fairly abrupt change of pace into the folk style, When Things Grow Teeth both leans into the new punk-folk genre on songs like Hello, Hopeville, which sound like it came straight out of Appalachia, and pulls back into familiar punk territory on songs like Red Flag, which displays Wick Bambix's influences blended into a new and different sound those seeking novelty will enjoy.

When Things Grow Teeth goes beyond novelty, however. Wick Bambix has crafted a concept album of sorts, drawing not only on the musical style of punk and folk for her new record, but also on the common lyrical themes of both genres. When Things Grow Teeth is an LP taking folk music's ability to identify social trends and it's praise for nature and life and combines it with punk music's desire to improve, its ability to point out the injustice in the world and demand change. I see this blending of genre most clearly in the song On Repeat in lyrics such as "but I did it when drunk, did it when hungry, I did it for love. Always on repeat. Did it for change and to embrace all the broken, the ones who feel left out and silently shout", taking the best of two ultimately similar genres, lyrically, and making something new.

Compare this to one of my favorite emo albums, Brave Faces Everyone by Spanish Love Songs (The Tempo just reviewed Spanish Love Song's most recent EP). Where we see the lyric "Don't you know you were born to die poor man? Don't you know that you're gonna do yourself in? And you'll always wake up tired 'cause there's nowhere we go from here". Obviously emo and it's close relative, punk, music has a way of presenting situations as dire in a way we all love, but compared to When Things Grow Teeth, we can see the lack of optimism, of desire for equity and justice. The inclusion of the folk genre by Wick Bambix bridges the ideological gap between being able to identify problems and the demand for change.

The Tempo recommends When Things Grow Teeth, and we think that those of you who are fans of punk, emo, and/or folk music should definitely give it a listen. We especially recommend When Things Grow Teeth to those of you out there who may have dabbled in emo but were turned off by the lyrical content. This one is for you! The Tempo gives it a 4/5.