ALBUM REVIEW: LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW BY ECCA VANDAL
Reviewed by Cecilia Pattison-Levi
Release date 22 May 2026
In case you missed this album release, Rebecca “Ecca” Vandal has her new studio album, ‘Looking for People To Unfollow’,out in the world after nine- year gap in recording.The South African-born, now Melbourne based, musician has forged her own path, and she has looked at the future of music making in a Tik Tok world and firmly rejects that backtracking, dominant AI-constructed hell. The album does not stay in its lane as it ranges over 17 songs in genres as diverse as heavy metal, punk, reggae, dance, drum & bass, metalcore, alternative rock, singer-songwriter lyricism, with some rap flourishes.
I saw Ecca Vandal support the Deftones a fewmonths ago. Her live set was fabulous and like a punch in the face. Her new album opens like that, with bubble sounds and synths lulling you into a false sense of pop security before the explosive punk rock bursts in ‘Airplane Mode’, ‘Eyes Shut’ and ‘Sorry! Crash!’. Then, ‘Vertical Worlds’ changes direction, with a 1970s-melodic hard rock sonic vibe. The drum beat and distortion lead in ‘Bleed But Never Die’, and it’s a pop-punk wonder as the lyricism discusses life as “ugly and beautiful” as she is “done with fools like you”, as she tells the listener to embrace the sadness of the state of the world and “who doesn’t love a good cry”, as the chorus lodges itself in your head. ‘Cruising to Self Soothe’ turns all alternative rock and, lyrically, it’s about moving on as you “don’t look back” but at the “top it’s fucking cold”. It is a strangely triumphant song about making it and not giving a fuck about moving on.
There is lyrical humour in the songs as ‘Molly’, with its off-kilter guitar riff and sarcastic tone about “learning to fly” and “hating that I’m right” about other people’s evil intentions, is delivered. Then, the album takes a drastic musical change in direction, it’s like experiencing sonic whiplash, as ‘Okay Not To Be Okay’ and ‘Levitate Part 1 + 2’ pull back from the punk distortion and move into ‘synthy’ groove-heavy, almost dance-pop, introspection, with dreamy R&B beats underpinning them. These two songs demonstrate the vision that genre-hopping can bring as the soundscapes move between electronica, dance, R&B, rap and alternative rock.
The title track, ‘Looking For People To Unfollow’, is so short and glitchy as it explodes with energy away from the R&B interlude that just happened. Then, the South Asian rhythmic beats and melody of ‘Then There’s One’ comes with added rap, and it’s terrific. ‘Bleach’ is another blast of hard R&B. Then, jazz samples and Nina Simone-like vocals break down into the rap and R&B of the very short ‘Did A Little More To Forget’ as big bassline rhythms bleed into the bass-heavy beats that nod to reggae on the next song, ‘Do It Anyway’.
Then, ‘Dance in Debt’ vents with a patronising spoken introduction: “Girls may seem silly and opinionated” as the sonic punk attack blasts into 30 seconds of cathartic release. Ecca Vandal turns her frustration with patriarchal condescension into a sonic liberation track. Then, the last two songs, ‘Ghosts’ and ‘Came Here For The Loot’, are the highlights of the album: politically-charged as the messaging sends home to the Tik Tok generation to fix their casual racism and reject social media’s empty promises and false idols, all to a punk-rock ethos and edge with hip-hop melodies and dance-driven beats.
If you want your music to be challenging, with aggressive punk overtones, and like spice and variety, not “Pizza Hut”, then give this album a try. It will reward you.
