girls - album

[Pod/Inertia: 2009]

When your writing about music it's generally a rule of thumb (whatever the fuck that expression means - please enlighten me if you know the back story, by the way) that you approach the record or the song in an entirely objective way - purely based on the merits of the music itself in isolation of anything else. T his is virtually impossible. Especially, if - like some people we know - you have a highly biased obsession with the artist (see Prince, Animal Collective, and Kylie Minogue in this reviewer's case) or are slightly enamoured with members of the band (see Jason Swilley from Black Lips or Mos Def in this reviewer's case). Take for example, this week we've seen Susan Boyle - the lunch lady-esque singer from below-average reality tv talent show, X Factor UK, release the HIGHEST SELLING DEBUT ALBUM OF ALL TIME in England in the last week or so. Good lord - I mean, the lady can obviously carry a tune, but she ain't no Maria Callas. The truth is, that people love a story (Susan Boyle is a toothless wrong-side-of-the-tracks kind of gal, as far as we know) and you can sell a lot of records if your story is good enough. Where the feck was I going with this…
Girls - Yes! There is a story behind San Francisco band, Girls, and I'll tell it to you, but unlike the Susan Boyle's and whoever-the-hell-else's out there, Girls carry with them an interesting story but their hazy, sunny, lo-fi brand of California garage pop doesn't need an angle - it's beautiful, honest, punk, fuzzy, breezy, baked, grand, grunge, simple, experimental, and… yikes - I feel like I've just accidentally told someone I "like like" them while drunk instead of just staying cool and letting some subtle body language get the message across...
So, the story: Christopher Owens - lyricist and songwriter - was born and raised in the Children of God cult and spent his childhood praying in controlled seclusion from the outside world. According to his bio, his years in Children of God were fairly fucked up - with stories of suicide, prostitution and eventually a dramatic escape at the age of 16, he fell into the punk scene in San Francisco and it was here that he eventually met the Johnny Marr to his Morrissey - JR White, the other half of Girls who covers the production/studio side of the outfit. The heart-on-sleeve songwriting of Christopher combined with the neo-grunge cool of JR's producing is heart-rendering garage pop synergy. Various similarities have been cast - the Pet Sounds era Beach Boys surf-pop of "Summertime", the late 80s shoegaze whine of "Laura", and the super catchy new wave Elvis Costello-sounding "Lust For Life".
Album sounds so young and fresh and like it all comes so easily to these two Californian cats. I hope it stays that way. Girls - one of our absolute favourite new bands with one of the best albums (debut or otherwise) from this year.

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