28. December 2025
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Media Review

Berries – How We Function

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Berries - How We Function

Berries - How We Function
3.3

Rating

 3.3/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Cool, very signature sound
  • Nice blend of grunge and garage rock elements

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Too similar songs

A female trio from London, doing a mixture of grunge and garage rock sounds – the basic facts about the band Berries already feels interesting. I received their debut album How We Function from a promotion agency and felt to give them a deeper listen. Release date is 8th July 2022.

 

Berries – About The Artists

The Berries have been “really” founded in 2018. There have been some previous releases, though. The trio is lead by Holly, who is the singer and guitarist, but also the songwriter of the band. The other band members are Lauren (bass) and Lucie (drums). In 2018, they released the four track EP Lies. Thereafter, the band had some interesting gigs as a support act. In May and June 2022, for example, they supported The Subways on their German tour.

 

Berries – How We Function – Track by Track

The twelve track album lasts 40 minutes.

1. We Are Machines

The first words on the album are in fact in… French. However, the ladies are quickly changing to their mother tongue and doing a nice indie rock track. I like the cheekiness of the song, which has a touch of punk to me. The key message does neither sound French nor Greek to me: We Are Machines – That’s how we function.

2. Spiral

Spiral is a nice, rocking song, which is nicely driven by Holly on the guitar and drummer Lucie. One of the songs with the strongest garage-style characters on this album to me. The chorus nicely stays in your mind as well.

3. Basic Tables

Basic Tables is nicely driven by the bassy grunge groove of the song. However, it is not just Lauren, who is adding her part to a great listen. The song has this pleasant simplicity of a mature school band, but on the other hand is a very precise write. Finally, this leads to an interesting listen.

4. The Expert

The Expert has been one of the single releases of the album already. The song works with a very nice, wide arrangement. I like the contrasting guitar lines, but also the background vocals. Nice.

5. Discreetly

The press kit names Discreetly “different to where we are heading but they still represent us as a band”. I like this kind of sound as well. Very nice work on the guitar side and good melodic elements.

6. Haze

Haze is a bit of slower and comes with a nice garage sound. Nonetheless, the song does not catch me too much. Just a bit too brave in my point of view.

7. Wall Of Noise

The dark bass groove of Wall Of Noise and the nice electric guitar line on top of it leads to a very special touch. One of my most favored listens.

8. Siren

Not quite a Siren, but the instrumental parts of this song illustrate nicely, how well these ladies are able to work with their instruments. Great sound, which stays in your mind.

9. Grow

Grow does not come that much with the dark sound of garage and grunge at the beginning. However, later in the song, the ninth song feels much more like the key genres of the band. I like the contrast to Holly’s rather high voice and the deep sound of the bass and guitar riffs.

10. Strength In Numbers

Again, I like the grunge-alike groove of Strength In Numbers. The song is not a bad one, but I would love to have some new, additional aspects of Berries’ music.

11. Copy

Copy has such a big contrast between the rather dark sound of the verses and the happy, uplifting chorus. This song almost feels like two ones, which are mixed forth and back. Great instrumental part again.

12. Your Mind

The guitar chord-driven Your Mind closes How We Function with a very own style. Nonetheless, you feel the dark rock touch of grunge in this one. Cool way to finalize the debut album of the British artists.

 

Berries – How We Function – Spotify

Here is the album on Spotify:

 

Berries – How We Function – My View

I like How We Function. I feel it is cool, it introduces a very nice signature style of music. However, there is also a certain similarity in the songs. I would love to listen to a wider variety of sounds and melodies. Nice one, but more far away from the very top ratings than Holly, Lauren and Lucie should be.

 

London Top Pick! Reviews

Here are all my postings about London, which lead to a Top Pick! review:

 

All “classic” blog posts

No reviews – just debating and certain topics – these are my “traditional” blog posts in the categories Just blogging, Just blogging on music and Sports Blogging:

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