Album Review : Girls - Album
- Written by Jonathan Hopkins
Like me, the heartless bastards among you probably hate it when you’re made to endure the lamentations of a friend who’s just split with their partner. For a while they maintain a semblance of composure, momentarily joining in with the banter as if nothing’s happened. Hell, they even seem quite jovial. However, before long it all starts to go horribly wrong, and soon you find them blubbing into the remnants of their beer like a great clunking pansy.
You console them as best you can, which usually consists of half-heartedly patting them on the shoulder and telling them there’s plenty more fish in the sea. Soon their continual pissed-up blathering becomes tiresome and you give up, leaving them in a hunched, juddering heap in the corner alone. Any further attempt in communication results in another hackneyed anecdote about how they’ve made a mistake, or that this girl/boy was the best thing that ever happened to them.
It’s the kind of drug-fuelled ramblings you’d expect to hear from a teenager, or a tramp! Album from Girls is the much like musical equivalent of this. So it’s no surprise to learn that the creators of Album spent a large part of the time composing while hepped up on goof-balls. Alas, it’s not only the public displays of maudlin sentiment, but furthermore the kind of awful poetry that your friend then goes home to write in a pissed stupor.
Ok, so that’s a little harsh. After a few listens the merits of Album are apparent. ‘God Damned’ is good. Hiding behind the bryllcream haircuts and 50s bop style lies a genuinely tender and endearing love song. ‘Hellhole Ratface’ follows suit. It’s a gentle swaying number that builds well with reverb drenched guitar lines taking it to epic like levels. Slightly discordant, psychedelic, long but not outstaying its welcome.
However, all too often the utilization of revivalism becomes tired, such as on the surf rock homage, ‘Big Bag’. What he appears to be doing is breathe some lo-fi punk aesthetic into a fatigued genre, and with often-vapid results. This isn’t really helped by tracks such as ‘Headache’. Far too often Album is comprised of dull pastiche, borrowing too much without really bringing anything new to the table. Thankfully throwaway tracks sits between finer examples of songs on Album.
‘Summertime’ demonstrates what Girls can achieve, and marks a welcome relief from the breakup dross that permeates much of the album. Away from the languid misery, there’s songs such as ‘Morning Light’. It’s a blistering mind blower that brings a welcome and remarkably optimistic change to an album that often suffers from being laden with tired lo-fi and languid shtick.
Overall you’re left hoping that the subject matter of the next Girl’s album isn’t so melancholy.