The thudding resonance of anticipation pounding on hollowed drums lasts for half a minute but feels like forever. Then, “Will you see it before bowls break it?” chants Iona Zajac, a compelling warning of sorts with no clear meaning at first.
This is a haunting introduction. But the listener feels like there is more. ‘Bowls,’ the opening track of the Glasgow singer-songwriter and touring vocalist with legendary band The Pogues, continues its swell. “Ask her, ask us all” announces itself with such a ghostly menace as Zajac commands her vocals with precision. The haunting sonic space continues, but the distressed laments create an anticipatory catharsis.
But just as the song begins to rest on resolution and the listener is lulled into a sense of conclusion, there is quite literally a bang. A cathartic drum beats thunderously alongside distressed cymbals like some war-call aching. As Zajac notes in a press release, ‘Bowls’ expresses a more general feeling of anger about violence towards women.”
The powerful symbolism of its songwriting and gravity it presents musically makes the opener a perfect introduction to Zajac’s debut album, Bang.
Over the last several years, Zajac has honed her craft as a vocalist on stage alongside Mercury Rev, Arab Strap, Lankum, John Francis Flynn, Anna B Savage, and Cassandra Jenkins. Additionally, Zajac opened for, and sang with The Pogues on a “tour of a lifetime” in 2025. As noted in a press release, while racking up extensive experience on the road, she meticulously gathered material for her debut “that would provide a comprehensive distillation of the last fifteen years of her life.”
“It’s a big thing to release a debut album, especially one that’s so personal and heavily loaded,” Zajac said in a press release. “I’m definitely ready to unleash the beast, it’s not weighing me down anymore. It’s thanks to these songs for helping me let things go.”
With the energy of Angel Olsen or Sharron Van Etten, the album shifts from the unworldly ‘Bowls’ to the upbeat title track. With the dexterity of a seasoned songwriter, Bang soars with the freedom of sexual expression in her vocals, “I’ll bang the head off you / just to beat the blues.”
Again, Zajac shifts with fearlessness on the track order with the tragedy of ‘Dilute.’ Inspired by experiences as a teenager, the song presents vivid imagery with such grace. Written like a poem torn from a page, the listener feels such a connection of empathy to the figure earning their rageful freedom.
Across the album, Zajac brilliantly bounces across her songwriting abilities. Through moments of folk balladry similar to Joni Mitchell, ‘Summer,’ ‘Ridiculous Hat’ and ‘Salt’ bare raw emotions with tragic ease. The lyrical depth at times feels too private of confessions for the listener to stumble upon. ‘Chicken Supermarket,’ which also channels the forlorn, is perhaps the best example of Zajac’s descriptive powers. The brief song feels like enough material to evoke a novella, and is radiant in its humble storytelling.
Yet, these intense moments are juxtaposed by several more relatively upbeat tracks reminiscent of Olsen, Indigo de Souza or PJ Harvey. ‘End of the Year,’ ‘Anton,’ and ‘Murder Mystery’ don’t necessarily stray from the bare-all introspections, but create a sonic levity that masterfully changes the pace of the album.
On the album’s conclusionary track, ‘Loving Is Rough’ creates a graceful space for Zajac’s vocals to shine one last time. The emptiness of the track slowly culminates in a surreal echo of voices until the album ends in a satisfying resolution.
Bang is complicated, nuanced and thoughtfully presented in a manner of different ways. But Zajac’s ability as a songwriter feels the most prescient of all those ways. In a press release, the artist gives insight into this, and what she hopes others could take away from her art.
“It’s very important as a female artist that I appeal to young women with my work,” said Zajac. “I write a lot about my own experiences; the good, the bad and the ugly. I mostly write with a nuanced hand but also lean into being necessarily on the nose. I had some bad experiences as a teenager and one of the most therapeutic ways of dealing with this has been through songwriting. There’s an angry song that I play live and I can’t count the amount of young women that have approached me afterwards, often emotional, about how that song spoke of their experience, too. That’s what it’s all about to me; reaching out to people and leaving them with something to think about. As a recording artist I feel a responsibility to speak to, and speak out for others, and hopefully in turn empower, and shake things up a bit.”
Bang is available on all streaming platforms and can be purchased on Bandcamp.
Iona Zajac: Official Store / TikTok / Instagram / ffm.bio / Facebook
Review by Joshua Gutierrez
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