There’s always a bit of scepticism when someone crosses over from TV into music. Too often it feels like a vanity project — a celebrity hobby dressed up as a band. Lauren Ash’s new single F.A.F.O, though, comes crashing through that expectation like a skateboard through a shop window. It’s loud, scrappy and doesn’t give a damn, lets take a look at it.
Built on a crunchy skater-rock riff that feels lifted straight out of a sweaty LA garage rehearsal, F.A.F.O wastes absolutely no time setting the tone. The guitars bite hard, the drums punch with a loose, live feel, and Ash’s vocal delivery lands somewhere between playful sarcasm and outright confrontation. Robbie Brett keeps things tight enough to hit hard while still letting the track feel slightly rough around the edges, which is exactly what this kind of punk-leaning rock needs.
The verses are deliberately simple, almost bratty in their delivery, which works with the song’s message. It’s a track aimed squarely at the kind of patronising nonsense women still get thrown at them in the music industry. Instead of turning the whole thing into a preachy lecture, Ash leans into humour and swagger. The title alone tells you everything you need to know about the attitude here: push someone long enough and eventually they’ll “fuck around and find out.”
Where the song really lands is in the chorus. It explodeQs into something far bigger than the verses suggest, stacking harmonies and thick guitars into a genuinely anthemic moment. You can absolutely picture this being screamed back by a crowd in some tiny rock club with sticky floors and blown speakers. There’s a cheeky confidence running through the whole thing that makes it incredibly easy to latch onto.
Credit also has to go to the musicianship behind it. Zoe McMillan’s drumming — her first original studio recording here — adds a punchy backbone that keeps the whole thing moving forward. It’s not flashy, but it doesn’t need to be. Punk and skater rock live or die on momentum, and the rhythm section does a solid job of driving the track like it’s rolling downhill with no brakes.
Ash’s vocal performance is another highlight. She doesn’t try to oversell it with huge rock-star theatrics. Instead, she sounds like someone who’s genuinely enjoying winding people up. That tongue-in-cheek tone keeps the track from becoming overly aggressive or self-serious, which could easily have happened given the lyrical theme.
But here’s the thing: it doesn’t really need to. F.A.F.O isn’t trying to be some groundbreaking art-rock statement. It’s trying to be loud, defiant and fun — and on those terms it absolutely succeeds. Ash clearly loves this kind of music, and that enthusiasm bleeds through every second of the track.
Considering her background in TV and voice acting, it would’ve been easy for this to come across as a novelty release. Instead, it feels like someone finally giving themselves permission to chase the band dream they’ve had since their teens.
And if this is the direction Lauren Ash is heading after her debut album Call Me When You Get This, then she’s onto something. F.A.F.O might not reinvent punk rock, but it does something arguably more important: it reminds you how much fun it is when someone plugs in a guitar, turns the volume up and refuses to shut up.
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