Petrol Girls announce new album ‘Baby’

April 1, 2022 James Weaver

PETROL GIRLS have announced a new album!

Titled Baby, the upcoming album from the punk band is the follow-up to 2019’s Cut & Stitch, and is scheduled to be released in June this year, via Hassle Records.

Speaking about the upcoming album, vocalist Jen Aldridge says, “I wanted to do something on police violence, abolitionists politics and kicking back against carceral feminism. I was thinking about the time my friend was arrested and strip searched by The Met, horrifically. I was thinking about Sarah Everard, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, and about Sarah Reed. I was thinking of Marcia Rigg, and all her campaigning work since her brother Sean died in police custody. All of these things were going around my head. My balance of where I put my energy has moved away from just grieving injustice and more towards working out what needs to change and how do we collectively do that. That’s something I needed for my mental health as well, because I can’t live in a constant state of grief and anger. I need to have purpose and vision in the ways I’m fighting back.”

Alongside the announcement of the new album, the band have released a new live sessions music video for a new song lifted from the upcoming album; Clowns. The new single is the third song to be lifted from the upcoming album, following on from Baby, I Had An Abortion and Fight For Our Lives.

Speaking about the new song, Aldridge says, “Clowns really showcases the vibe & musical direction of a lot of the record. It’s playful, a bit unhinged and built on a repetitive riff. It was so much fun to write together.” The song began with a lot of comedic placeholders riffing on Stuck in the Middle With You by STEALERS WHEEL (“We are the clowns from the left / But they ain’t joking on the right”) that ended up staying in. “I was like, wait a minute, I can actually just rewrite these lyrics and make them fit this with a political twist on it,” Aldridge laughs. “It started off as a joke, but I do actually think there’s political weight to what I’m trying to say there.”

Watch the official live session music video for Clowns here:

Also, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming new album below:

Track List:

1. Scraps
2. Preachers
3. Feed My Fire
4. Baby, I Had An Abortion
5. Clowns
6. Unsettle
7. Fight For Our Lives (ft. Janey Starling)
8. Violent By Design
9. One Or The Other
10. Sick & Tired
11. Bones