Dream Wife - So When You Gonna... review: Heartfelt and unapologetically outspoken

After a steep ascension in 2018 with their self-titled debut, Dream Wife’s So When You Gonna… is similarly outspoken, feminist and punky.

With a discordant guitar riff, Sports! opens the album as lead singer Rakel Mjöll shouts: “F*** sorry/f*** please.” It is a challenge to stop apologising for what you do, and just do it. The song is also a hilariously sarcastic take on tedious male condescension in sport. “Do you even play this sport?” Mjöll asks mockingly, in one of many vocal asides on the album.

It has heartfelt moments too, such as on Temporary, about miscarriage: “If the heartbeat fails/Know I’m here/With a full embrace/How is it to love and live temporary?” A painful topic usually so shrouded by shame is not shied away from, the band describing the pain miscarriage causes, but also uplifting those who have experienced it. “Know you’re brave to jump back into/I’ll applaud it.”

A mixture of clashing riot grrrl guitars and painfully honest indie anthems, the record is at its core a call to live in the present and ignite a “now-or-never” attitude.