Album Review: Stella Donnelly - Beware Of The Dogs

With 2017’s EP Thrush Metal, the Perth-raised, Welsh-Australian Stella Donnelly proved herself to be one of Australia’s sharpest and unflinchingly direct songwriters. And now, through Beware Of The Dogs, Donnelly has sharpened her searing wit to the point that it feels like she’s wielding a surgeon’s knife, dissecting cultural landscapes with ease.

Her lyrics often leave little room for ambiguity. “Your personality traits don’t count/If you put your dick in someone’s face,” she croons in her impish, striking, and soothing voice on Old Man, a rebuttal against Woody Allen’s dismissive comments about the #MeToo movement, which reduced it to a ‘witch hunt’.

In the 13-track LP, you’ll find sinister garden gnomes dotted with political messages; romance interpreted as a mosquito being drawn to their fiery demise, and an ode to Donnelly’s punk mum. The songs bring to mind Melbourne act Dick Diver’s ability to capture the darkness within our national identity alongside a light, airy musicality.

While Thrush Metal leant into the simple layering of a vocalist and her guitar, Beware Of The Dogs sees her bringing in trusted friends for half of its tracks. They’ve added drum machines and synths, with little splashes of dissonance throughout so as to avoid becoming an overly polished, sterile record.

The title track feels like the strongest song on the album. Functioning as a call to arms, Donnelly throws down each lyric with the full weight of her voice and a crying guitar rings out. The strength of the record lies in its affecting storytelling, and in its dichotomy of pleasant, gentle compositions, which accompany the rage of a woman who has been let down by misogynist men. Beware Of The Dogs feels like the embodiment of a movement of young artists in Australia who are refusing to let this oppressive behaviour slide.