Even if Queen Bee had never formed, Karen Neal (Queen Bee herself) would have an impressive punk resume: she was part of the legendary all-girl punk band Inside Out, a former member of Alternative Tentacle Records' heavy-hitting band Thrall, and has guest vocal credits with both His Name Is Alive and Lard. If the list ended there, it would already have enough punk cred to ensure that she would never have to buy her own drinks again.
The Queen Is On Top
Instead, she set out to front her own band, and if the sex-charged aggression on Girl On Top is any indication of why, Neal simply has too much energy to stop anytime soon.
Musically, the album is a sludge-rocking gut punch reminiscent of some harder bands from the late '80s and early '90s like Skinyard and early Soundgarden. Much of the album rocks hard and low this way, and Neal's vocals provide the lift that keeps it going.
The album opens with "Anatomical Gift", and when Queen Bee sings "I'm anatomically gifted, and economically priced" along with a sludgy, dirty guitar line, it's OK to blush, you won't be the only one. Girl On Top doesn't let up there. After that, it's song after song of trashy guitars, sexy lyrics and dirty rock and roll with punk hooks. From the sultry tune "Collector", where Queen Bee sings about "coming to collect your body" in a way that lets you know she's talking about a warm body, to "Wish You Dead", an aggressive rocker where she's talking about a dead one, the album is fast, heavy, and sexy without ever getting overly raunchy.
Queen Bee is here to rock and rule, and she makes no attempt to hide it. She states it herself on one of the fastest tracks on the album "Wanna-Bee"; a punk-riffed song that reasserts the Queen's authority as she belts out "I am the Queen of everything you wanna be, you'll always be, you'll always be a wanna-bee."
And there are definitely much worse icons to want to model oneself after. Pick up Girl On Top from Queen Bee, and you'll realize that she deserves to be worshipped for the rock goddess she is.
