‘Phonetics On and On' Review: Horsegirl's Hypnotic Guitar Rock

Wall Street Journal

11-02-2025

Over the past five years there has been a groundswell of new acts that revere the alternative rock of the '90s. Many are solo artists or bands fronted by women. In terms of timing, it makes perfect sense—these are the children who grew up listening to CDs from their Gen X parents' youth while riding around in the back of the minivan. Wet Leg and Beabadoobee are two acts that fit this description, and, on a much bigger scale, pop singer Olivia Rodrigo is another.
Horsegirl, a three-piece indie-rock band originally from Chicago and now mostly based in New York, is in a sense a continuation of this trend. The group comprises Nora Cheng and Penelope Lowenstein, who sing and play both guitar and bass, and drummer Gigi Reece. The trio's sound is steeped in the underground music from late in the 20th century, and its 2022 debut album, 'Versions of Modern Performance,' featured contributions from guitarist Lee Ranaldo and drummer Steve Shelley, both of Sonic Youth. It was an auspicious beginning for three performers who were just shy of 20 years old, yet it also seemed fair to describe them as another group of '90s revivalists. But the second Horsegirl album, 'Phonetics On and On' (Matador), out Friday, is a departure from its predecessor, and finds the band drawing on a different and more obscure set of influences.
The guitar that kicks off the opening 'Where'd You Go?' is thin and trebly, conjuring a school of strumming started by the Velvet Underground and furthered by Yo La Tengo and the Strokes, and the percussion is a twitching pile of drum rolls that brings to mind DIY groups from the U.K.'s post-punk era. Over this jittery backing, Ms. Cheng and Ms. Lowenstein sing interlocking lines with a chilly detachment, as words dissolve into syllables and meaning is found in sound rather than language. Their approach to singing—distant in terms of phrasing and affect, yet charged with melodic beauty—evokes the continental cool of Stereolab, one of the group's acknowledged influences, and is one of the LP's distinguishing features.
Horsegirl's debut album was recorded at Electrical Audio in Chicago, the studio founded by legendary engineer Steve Albini, who gave Nirvana's third studio album its serrated edge. On 'Phonetics On and On,' they recorded at The Loft, the home base of Wilco, with Cate Le Bon, who produced the latter band's most recent LP, at the controls. The distortion pedals, so prominent on Horsegirl's first album, have been put away, and the guitar tone throughout is dry and uninflected, letting the simplicity of the riffs and the chord changes do the work. Meanwhile the basslines, indebted to the tuneful, high-on-the-neck approach of New Order's Peter Hook, are packed with catchy riffs. The beauty of the album is in how every element contributes equally—there are no lead parts and nothing is pushed to the background. Each voice and instrument occupies an equally important place in the mix.