Album by Girls
LABEL: True Panther / Matador

“Skuzzy, no frills surf rock. A sunny homage to Brian Wilson
and a sophisticated nod to brother Dennis. Spacey walls of psychedelic atmosphere.”

To ignore the swirling sea of hipster hype engulfing this album and this band would just be silly. Christopher Owens and JR White of Girls are the certified critical darlings of September/October 2009 and suffice it to say, they’ve secured the fickle love of internet music nerds everywhere. 

What’s refreshing about the un-Googleable Girls and their search engine eluding debut Album is that they’ve managed to scale the sacred indie cred mountain without the help of some crappy sonic gimmick like electro trash or whatever it is the Animal Collective dudes do when they make us listen to stupid samples and found sounds. 

Girls are just playing simple, straightforward jams rooted in all the best Californian rock trends from the past century. Skuzzy, no frills surf rock. A sunny homage to Brian Wilson and a sophisticated nod to brother Dennis. Spacey walls of psychedelic atmosphere. The very best intentions of David Lee Roth.  It’s all there. It’s all over the place. The only discernible themes are good vibes and smiles.

It’s basically impossible not to be somewhat rattled by the almost Jarvis Cocker low end and ever so snotty punk influences of this thing Owens calls his voice. At first blush it sounds like he’s just trying too damn hard. Trying to be something he’s not. Trying to win us over with weird.

But this product of the bizarre Children of God cult (he fled the insane influence of his mother and various other religious psychos when he was 16) has a legitimately eccentric background that includes European street performance and the Amarillo, TX punk scene. A different style croon was inevitable. 

And it works. It gives these familiar musical themes we all know and love a nudge in the right direction without forsaking the source material. It’s equal parts doe-eyed innocence and M80s in your neighbor’s mailbox. Album is the soundtrack to all your favorite hazy, slow motion memories from high school.

The album has few missteps and when they show up in the form of the misguided clean-tone wandering in “Summertime” or the campfire acoustics of “Goddamn,” they’re never full fledged failures. Just a couple bad choices in otherwise solid tracks.

The slow building beauty of “Hellhole Ratrace” and playful ups and downs of “Lust For Life” make it abundantly clear that Girls are for real and Album is only the tip of their unimaginatively named musical iceberg. The sound is accessible and simple but beneath those blankets of warm California sun are some deceptively textured tunes from two guys who, despite their slacker swagger and stoner goofiness, clearly know exactly what they’re doing. 


REVIEWED BY ALEC BRINEGAR
ALEC'S FAVORITE TRACKS: “Hellhole Ratrace” • “Lust For Life”  • “Morning Light”

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