Girls - Broken Dreams Club

The whirlwind success of Girls’ first album and subsequent touring has enabled them to put this EP together using a proper studio and equipment and you’ll be glad i’m sure to hear that out of the two main avenues represented on their debut they’ve decided to go down the ‘60s pop/rock one rather that take the shoegazey/garagey one. Lushly produced and peppered with brass, the record is reminiscent of early ‘60s Spector pop mixed with the West Coast sounds emerging at the end of the decade.

As soon as the first track ‘Thee Oh So Protective One’ begins with brass and organ over a light beat its clear to see that Girls have matured and progressed since Album and it then becomes apparent they haven’t lost their incredible knack for songcraft either, with the forlorn and innocent tone of singer Christopher Owens sitting perfectly in the mix amongst the full band arrangement backing him. The shift into a proper, tight band that comes after a while touring has definitely taken place within the Girls camp and they sound like a proper unit on these six songs.

As with the last record, the general theme of this one is heartbreak, despair and lost love, with Girls once again managing to place their distinctly haunting trademark all over the seemingly upbeat and chirpy arrangements. It was Owens’ gift for melody and structure that was the main reason Album stood out so far from the crowd on it’s release and is still the reason why Broken Dreams Club puts other bands pursuing the West Coast sound to shame. The calibre of song on this album really is in a different league to the rest of the scene and I can’t help thinking that a song like ‘Heatbreaker’ or ‘Broken Dreams Club’, with it’s fantastic trombone solo and luscious pedal steel, would be Number 1 both sides of the Atlantic was this 1966 and not 2010.

The wealth of new instrumentation and all out production on this record really does allow the band to shine, the move away from the lo-fi sound of Album has served Girls well and bassist/producer Chet “JR” White has done a smashing job at the controls, managing to create a record that delivers great swirls of vivid warmth and optimism with every listen and conjures up images of a full band recording live in the middle of a hot and humid summers night.

The anomaly of the record is epic closer ‘Carolina’, which departs from the orchestral pop of the rest of the record and pushes deep into psychedelic territory. As Broken Dreams Club is a kind of bridging record between Album and what will be their second full length, ‘Carolina’ could well be a sneak preview of Girls new sound. Whatever it is, it’s the perfect closer to a perfect EP. It’s not often a band placed in the ‘lo-fi indie’ bracket comes up with something this good - it's classic pop with no pretence and a brilliant showcase of the potential Girls have to offer us, not that there was ever need for them to prove themselves.