Album Review: Girls - Album

When first laying eyes on this album from San Fransisco’s Girls one is struck by how amazingly terrible the cover art is, immediately lowering expectations of what will lie inside and pigeonholing this album as yet another emo/indie bedroom recording. Nevertheless, we press on to the album itself and opening track "Lust for Life" which starts things off with the staccato hammering of a single power chord for 16 bars (F#, for those of you playing at home) and not 10 seconds into the record patience is already being tested. Then the vocals kick in. Adolescent, high-pitched whining vocals and a very basic rhyme-structure. All hope is nearly lost until out of nowhere some amazing vocal harmonies kick in and rescue this song from the depths of mediocrity. Taking cues form the Beach Boys, and more recently (and likely) bands such as Useless ID, we begin to see some potential for Album.

Over the next few tracks the band settles in to what is all in all not a bad basic rock sound, with elements of 60's pop and modern day indie which seems to be taking over music festivals worldwide. That is until we hit track 4, "Goddamn". Goddamn is right, as the band venture into some truly horrible production, and attempt to bury this run-of-the-mill song under piles of useless percussion which sounds more like nails on a chalkboard than the sandpaper effect they were chasing. This track is hollow-sounding, corny, and bad. Luckily this track is followed by the standout "Big Bad Mean Motherfucker", a 60s surf rock tune kept in check by that infectious 12 bar boogie bassline. Once again we are treated to some sweet harmonies and it becomes apparent that each time the temptation to give up on this album arises; Girls manage to pull out something or other to keep the record spinning.

The next few songs are slower numbers, harking back to the crooners of old, yet sadly vocalist Christopher Owens’ range is not quite versatile enough to pull of the "Love Me Tender"-esque tone of these songs. "Summertime" and "Lauren Marie" follow, and are a hotchpotch mix of synthesized effects and attempts to build something tall on a far too narrow foundation. Despite the latter’s admittedly sweet vocals, the ambition of these songs is light-years ahead of the band’s ability to perform them.

This, most imaginatively titled album then winds down with the instrumental "Curls", which is probably the best display of musicianship on offer from Girls, with a nice little acoustic guitar arpeggio and effective synth and keys, backed up by a bass line that draws memories of later-era Nirvana and leads into the final track, "Darling" which once again proves that this band is at their strongest when they stick to a more straightforward rock and roll sound.

It seems like this band threw everything at the wall, saw what stuck, and promptly picked the rest up off the floor and pressed it onto their album anyway. Owens’ talent as a performer is not yet on par with his ambitious mind and this is a shame, as it makes some potentially solid songs nigh unlistenable. One gets the feeling that had this release been titled "EP" instead of "Album" it could have been truly enjoyable. A little more quality control, perhaps from a talented and experienced producer, would have done wonders for this record. As it stands, it’s all too complicated for its own good.