Sir Chloe unleash their darker desires on their wry, bluntly metaphorical 2023 full-length debut,
I Am the Dog. Along with a twangy, soft-loud art-punk sound that evokes the influence of '90s icons like
the Pixies and
Hole,
Sir Chloe have a knack for crafting sharp-tongued anthems that are often built around the struggle between the ego and the id, or more specifically, the human and the animal. It's a vibe that lead singer/songwriter
Dana Foote has been exploring from the start, when she put the band together in 2017 as part of her senior thesis project while a composition major at Vermont's Bennington College. Early viral hits "Michelle" (a song about a Fight Club-esque toxic relationship) and "Animal" (in which
Foote politely begs to be treated like one) set the tone for her dualistic style. On
I Am the Dog, she further answers her own implied question of what are you, human or animal? Sometimes that answer leans toward the more metaphorical, as on the woozy, narcotic title track in which
Foote describes herself as something like a rescue dog with emotional issues, fighting the ones who love her. Elsewhere, her imagery is surrealistically literal, as on the wiry,
Brian Eno-esque "Hooves," where she expounds the many base virtues of her half-goat/half-human lover, singing "Stand on hind legs/Feed you through the picket fence/Bite my hand, drool, beg/Table manners, what a drag." Vocally,
Foote has a knowing, flatly cool delivery in the tradition of singers like
Fiona Apple and
PJ Harvey. While
Sir Chloe's music is never as wildly pugilistic as
the Stooges, her dry humor and animal imagery do bring to mind
Iggy Pop's own "Wanna Be Your Dog" sexual energy. It's that struggle for control in a chaotic world, whether as master or pet, that
Foote sinks her teeth into throughout
I Am the Dog. ~ Matt Collar
