REVIEW: Grandma's House - Baby You're A Winner

Rather than being overfed or put to work by a beloved granny, a visit to this GRANDMAS HOUSE treats us to a post-punk/classic rock sound that borrows from the evolving decades of powerhouse punk and disillusioned grunge, lovingly packaged into the Bristol band’s debut album Baby You’re A Winner.

Chock full of gritty riffs, masterfully crafted rhythms, and vocals that mingle from syrupy to coarse in such a way Debbie Harry and Stevie Nicks would appreciate, GRANDMAS HOUSE weave stories throughout the album exploring the light and dark of what it means to be human, the mundane and the memorable of being alive and connecting to the world around you. Baby You’re A Winner captures the best essences of the last 60 years of rock and bring it into the modern era, creating an album that feels timeless in an age where we’re constantly running out of time.

Title track Baby You’re A Winner begins with an eerie voice before Zoë Zinsmeister punches through with a bassline that could melt titanium, the track giving away the fluctuating rhythms and vocals crafted to oppose each other that run prevalent on this album. DOG is full of bark and bite, lead vocalist Yasmin Berndt snapping at the hoops that have to be jumped through for mental health support and medication, the breakdown slowing to a sluggish pace reminiscent of the wash of medication that dulls the senses before the band rush back in. Blue Oblivion stands out as the first “sad” track on the album, a lament of crushing feelings that swings like a pendulum between stripped back drums and catchy guitars to back the yearning lyrics “now you’re in my head”, and a chorus that smashes through with crust punk instrumentals.

Drummer Poppy Dodgson kicks off The Table and lends her rich vocals to harmonise with Berndt’s husky tones and Polly Jessett’s riffs that vary in pitch and snap in with sudden hooks, the theme seeing the end of a relationship and the push-pull of letting it die or salvaging it. Hurricane may be the most addictive track on the album thanks to its memorable, boppy beats and rapid-fire guitar strums over Berndt’s low calls of “he wants more more more” harmonised with Dodgson’s clean higher vocals in a complementary style. Dance blends genres together from classic 70s rock and indie-punk, creating a sound that feels like THE ZOMBIES and BLACK HONEY both had a say in its direction, yet it works seamlessly with a gunslinger riff ringing through the verses and indie saxophone and trumpet blast in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6b8P8A0vo0

Next Big Hit (Choo Choo) drags back in heavily distorted post-punk vibes with racing bass and riffs over forceful drums, the lyrics scoffing at the treatment of women in music with an unseen but familiar subject of “hair slicked back” standing in the way of the freight train that is women deservedly taking up space in the industry. Taxidermy takes a more grunge approach in its rumbling and harsh instruments as Berndt and Dodgson give opposing pitches and get wickedly creepy over a love interest, proffering that they want to “wear you like a coat” and “don’t want to let you go”.

Diving back into a sound that’s near western gunslinger on Soaked, like the spirit of AMERICA (the band, not the country) is channelling through them, there’s an eeriness to the vocals that wars with pleasing guitar notes, a marker of how fantastically the album has been mastered to accommodate such conflicting pitches and rhythms into unforgettable tracks. I Miss That House feels as if they’re rushing to get their words and feelings out but simultaneously like they’re holding back in pace, the final chorus breakdown of tandem guitar riffs and Zinsmeister’s grounding bass feeling like a psychedelic trip you feel compelled to sway to.

How It Is deals with the grief of losing someone and everything else continuing as normal, the world around you carrying on while the unfinished actions of someone’s life remind you they’ll forever be stuck in this incompleteness, an echo of the incomplete feeling now existing inside your heart. Where each track stands alone as its own story to tell and we’ve explored a wealth of genres, closing track Spring is deliberately stripped back as a moment of hopeful reflection as Berndt and Dodgson echo each other in “I can’t wait for Spring to come around”. It’s a final moment that makes you sit and smell the proverbial flowers as you remember that Spring will come around again, you just have to push through to smell the soft rains and feel the sun’s gradual warmth once more.

Score: 8/10

Baby You're A Winner will be released on 21st August 2026 via Brace Yourself Records.

Words: Julia Stark Photos: Marie Dutton