Disgusting Sisters have released their debut album, Skin & Blisters, on Source Records. It’s out now.
The duo are real-life sisters, and the record draws on their childhood of pet rats, pranks, world-building and wicked games. It mixes horror and humour, with musical influences ranging from electro to emo.
Their name is partly a nod to the Disgusting Brothers in Succession. It also refers to Cinderella’s “bad sisters”, because, the pair say, “we feel like them on stage”.
Early reviews have been positive. The Guardian placed the sisters somewhere between Smerz, Brat-era Charli and debut-era Billie Eilish. The Times gave the album four stars out of five, and Clash called it “A blast of super-chic avant-pop”.
Over 10 tracks, the songs take on hopeless exes, productivity punishers and the grind of the 9-5. Josephine said the material comes from their own lives.
“I hope people find something of themselves in the songs, because they come from a very real place,” she said. “Every lyric is rooted in something we’ve lived or felt. I think of the album as a kind of diary – a record of us trying to figure out who we are, what we believe in and where we fit in the world. We’re making sense of things as we go, whether that’s relationships, work or just the general weirdness of being a young woman today.”
Most of the album was made DIY, written and recorded by the band with producer James McManus. The earlier singles were reworked with producer Oli Bayston, whose credits include Fat Dog, Barry Can’t Swim and Rachel Chinouriri. Those reworks lean harder into the pair’s indie influences, from Viagra Boys to Getdown Services.
The band start a UK tour next month:
- 18 November – Nottingham, The Angel
- 19 November – Manchester, Yes Basement
- 20 November – Glasgow, Poetry Club
- 21 November – Leeds, Headrow House
- 27 November – London, Club Cheek
- 28 November – Brighton, Dust
- 30 November – Bristol, Louisiana
Disgusting Sisters are on Instagram.