Review: Girls – Album (2009)
Girls, while essentially trading in the same circles and lyrical themes that many of their peers are, somehow rise above a lot of the commotion and obligatory static that the lo-fi scene thrives around. They’re potted in some rich artistic soil; not to say that bandleader Christopher Owens’ experiences as a childhood member of the abusive Children of God cult were positive, but these shift-in-your-seat discomforts always seem to make for some fascinating musical perspectives. As is often the case, the artist dies to be normal, and at the same time, they cherish that very dying. For artists like Owens, some even make their living by exhuming their closeted horrors and wallowing amongst them for our listening pleasure.
Though it would seem a ripe target for skewering, Owens doesn’t go for the throat of all the unspeakable difficulties he no doubt encountered in his young life. He seems a pretty genuine fellow, choosing instead to embrace the unique opportunities and places with which he has been presented. He speaks candidly about his life, romance, music, and heroes, some of it still stunted around middle school and trying furiously to catch up on all the teenage misadventures he missed while admiring and imitating the leather jackets from afar. Thus, in some sense, his compulsorily skewed worldview and love of unlikely favorites (like Michael Jackson’s Dangerous and Beyonce’s first disc from I Am…Sasha Fierce) make him all the more believable as an artist.
The few scraps of secular music he was able to steal away as a child had a profound effect on his musical sentiments, as did the chord progressions he aped while busking covers of the Everly Brothers and the Fleetwoods. His style as a guitarist, in fact, is basically a fusion of those late 50s pop favorites and the energy and attitude of the punk aesthetic he pursued so ruthlessly in his early 20s. Take his favoring of the major-to-minor fourth chord shift at the end of a phrase (“Lust For Life,” “Laura,” “Hellhole Ratrace”): it’s a page torn right from the 60s pop playbook all the way up to Radiohead’s “Creep.” That there are decades’ worth of missed music behind him is clearly of some significance; it should, for this reason, perhaps be less surprising that his songwriting seems so uniquely and sparingly seasoned.
Girls’ “Laura” from Album.
Most of Owens’ lyrics have all the depth of a Neil Sedaka Collection, and perhaps it’s only due to his affected delivery, but his vocals still retain the warmth of jagged emotion: “reach out and touch me / I’m right here / and I don’t want to fight anymore / I really want to be your friend forever / friends forever (“Laura”).” Aside from the relentlessly catchy single “Lust For Life,” the seven minute heartbreak crooner “Hellhole Ratrace” is probably the most feted track on Album. Owens sways his way plaintively enough through a few washed-out choruses before Girls turn the fuzz firehose loose and and the rest of the track becomes an extended “Hey Jude”-type coda, but the track’s repetition doesn’t seem worth the length, ultimately. “Morning Light” thrashes out an intro that sounds a whole lot like a cheap parody of Sonic Youth’s “Mote,” but it thankfully ends up being a late-breaking success with a fantastic guitar line as its pulsing impetus.
Elsewhere, Girls wholeheartedly succeed on the aforementioned “Lust For Life” and “Laura,” but also on the weepy “Ghostmouth,” the glittering acoustic intro of “Goddamn,” and the roaring quarter-mile anthem “Big Bad Mean Motherfucker.” “Curls” quietly revisits one of Owens’ earlier band attempts, actually; his former band went by the same name. Girls as a moniker, in fact, was a snap decision, chosen mostly because it rhymed with Curls. As the better part of its substance was a continuation of the same vein of songwriting (only without Owens’ now-ex-girlfriend), perhaps it only seemed civil.
So, does all this against-the-odds ascendancy add up to the crown jewel of the lo-fi scene this year? You be the judge, but the verdict is in on one thing: the ultimate crossover album? Get real. Certain critics would have you subscribe to the stunted belief that Girls have an instant sleeper classic; they’re calling Shawshank Redemption on the many Forrest Gumps released alongside Album in 2009. The obvious truth, however, is that it’s still a lo-fi album in a world where bands like Nickelback move millions of records and sell out the biggest venue any given city can muster up. Girls may have cracked the Billboard 200, but they certainly can’t have any delusions about sales, for one thing.
Under its own umbrella, then? Fair enough – if only within the year they’re being reviewed, Girls feel a little overmatched in their scene. And yet, this was all on the wavier; there have been some tremendous records released this year, and the only reason they’re not all stacking higher on Decade Best lists is because the critics don’t have the benefit of hindsight. Girls made a great record, but they’re simply bringing too little pop appeal to the table to be a truly competitive crossover with Album.
