- The "#metoo" movement of women sharing experiences of sexual assault in response to high profile allegations was one of those zeitgeist moments no one can plan or predict.
Young Fremantle singer-songwriter Stella Donnelly appeared not long after with her debut EP Thrush Metal and the song Boys Will Be Boys. Like that hashtag, it happened to be the right song for the right time; bluntly exploring the differing perceptions of an assault. It put Stella on the map as an important new voice in Australian songwriting.
It can be difficult in those circumstances to follow up a song like that. Common as the experience of sexual assault is for women in our society, you wouldn't expect Stella Donnelly to now want to spend the rest of her life singing about it. If that's something she's worried about, it's not immediately apparent from the opening track of her debut album Beware Of The Dogs. Entitled Old Man, the song chides "your personality tricks don't count if you put your dick in someone's face".
Beware Of The Dogs is a feminist album, sure. A third wave feminist one that mixes politics in a formal sense with a lot of sass, explorations of power dynamics in personal relationships and a playful portrayal of feminine sexuality. Boys Will Be Boys is there too, still striking in its lyrics and stark arrangement.
Elsewhere the album explores other political themes. U Owe Me is class-conscious in its address to a hospitality employer. The title track humourously contrasts election signs in people's yards with the "beware of the dogs" warning on the front gate.
Ultimately that's a good representation of the album. Political yet playful, and grounded in lyrics observational of everyday life.
Beware Of The Dogs is millennial folk music - mixing the DIY styles of guitar and cheap electronics, woke to politics if not protest in a traditional sense. It sings the lives of a generation equally familiar with the futility of watching your future destroyed as it is with sentiments like "I want to bring you cake back from work but you're allergic".
- Andy Paine.