Goff's Pick of the Week- Album by Girls

 

I made a promise to myself before writing this column, that I would not compare Chris Owens, front man of the aptly named Girls to the legendary Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. It became a sort of a mantra of mine, don’t compare Owens to Wilson don’t compare Owens to Wilson. I wrote it repeatedly on a chalkboard over and over while in detention at Springfield Elementary School, and I even took my wife and child to a abandoned hotel in the mountains during the winter so I could type a reminder to myself… over and over and over again. But with that said I think I am finally ready to write my pick of the week on Album, the wonderful debut by The Beac… er I mean Girls.

 

When I say that Girls are like the Beach Boys I don’t mean that they sound like the Beach Boy’s sunny pop, because they simply don’t, or that Girls cashes in on surfer aesthetical themes, because they don’t do that either. No, what Owens has in common with Wilson is his ability to write songs, his love for the craft, and sheer talent and melodic sense. Instead of trying to write tracks that childishly/predictably mash up genres or rely on abstract lyrics that are neither poetic nor relatable, Owens comes off as someone who wants to write shallow pop songs with dumb lyrics and riffs but fails miserably at it; somewhere along the way creating one of the best albums of the decade. The thing that he captures so well is the profound sincerity that can be found in Beach Boy tracks like “Wouldn’t it Be Nice”, which if song by someone else could have been a car crash at the junction of Corny St and Wussy Avn. There is no doubt that Chris puts himself into his songs, many of which are very personal and explore his relationships with women, his upbringing (he was born into a cult by his mother, he escaped and was homeless for a long time before eventually being taken in by a rich artist), and his struggles with drugs. That Owens cares about his craft is obvious; a good example was his performance of “I Will Always Love You” after hearing Whitney Houston died (you can track it down on the internet if you try hard). Im sure there were a lot of bands that played covers of Houston after she died purely to be topical or as a joke, but Owens’ gut wrenching rendition sure as hell doesn’t look like a joke.

 

The sincerity with which Owens approaches “I Will Always Love You” is the same sincerity that he brings to every track on Album and it really is just as gorgeous. Ironically the song that is least sincere is probably the most emotional, the albums opener Lust for Life (no not a cover of Iggy Pop, check out the video here, It is legitimately one of my favorite music videos of all time). In a voice that Owens himself has described as being intentionally snotty he croons “Well I wish I had a boyfriend/ I wish I had a loving man in my life. The song is sublime to say the least, a track from a band called Girls sung by a straight male from the perspective of a needy female that parodies melodrama, but is in essence melodrama itself? It is all of those things indeed, but as the late Billy Mayes might have exclaimed “Wait, there’s more!”. Indeed, Lust for Life, which at its core is about a girl at her absolute lowest, her most vulnerable, is perhaps the most ironically catchy song to come out of Indie rock since Pavement and that is really saying something. What’s more it features a cappella vocal backings on the second verse and a melodica solo, a well rounded extremely bittersweet tune that features the lick from The Needle and The Damage Done by Neil Young as its outro. The rest of Album follows suit, ranging from sad numbers about relationships to headstrong yet misguided tracks that sound like they are the beginnings of new heartache. Production interestingly enough varies from track to track, making Album probably about 1/4 -3/8 of a lo-fi album. The track God Damned for instance is very lo-fi in its production quality featuring stripped down acoustic guitar which is an interesting choice because it is one of the best written songs present on Album. In total though the whole thing is unbelievable good, and if a certain Beach Boy happens to read this blog (unfortunately folks I know he doesn’t), Id imagine he would agree.

 

 

 

Album Pick of the Year

This year it was tough to pick out one album that stood out as “favorite album of the year”. This is simply because of the multitude of strong releases by some of my favorite indie acts, which in retrospect is probably the kind of problem that you want to have. Among these honorable mentions are albums by tUnE-yARDs, and St. Vincent, both of whom I’ve seen live (they both put on SPECTACULAR shows) and Atlas Sound and Girls, both of whom I’ve bought tickets to see in December and January, and while I love all four of those acts, and all four of the wonderful albums they each have put out in this past year, my “favorite album of the year” award has to go to the double album “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” by M83.

Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is difficult to categorize, for on the one hand it is eclectic, mixing eighties sounding drum beats, bass licks, saxophones and vocal lines with  modern electric noises and lyrics, and on the other hand because it is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. The easiest genre to place this album in would be 80’s revival electronic, label it as “sort of like Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti” (who I love) and be done with it, but that label doesn’t quite do the band or the album justice. With shrill electric noises over smooth familiar beats with thrown in guitar and soothing vocal lines this album is much more than that, it is its own.

One of the things that will instantly turn me away from an electronic album/band like M83 are repetitive or non-attention grabbing riffs. There is nothing worse than sitting down for an electronic album, most of which are only 30-40 minutes long and not being able to listen to the whole thing because I get bored. Now to undertake listening to an album in this genre that is 79 minutes seemed daunting at first, but before I knew it the album was done and I was the one left dreaming. Particular tracks that stand out are the single Midnight City, which I will get to in a minute, its B-side counterpart New Map, and one of the closing tracks Steve McQueen. As the name of the album suggests, the songs are ephemeral, vanishing into air before the listener can fully digest them, leaving only a haze a little like the skid marks the Delorean in Back to the Future leaves behind, but these three tracks in particular stand out, sort of like that one part of a dream that you can remember. The reason I said I would get back to Midnight City is because a week after I heard that single it appeared in a Victoria’s Secret commercial. One week. And do I blame them? No. Normally I’m against using licensed songs in TV commercials as a way to make money and promote a band, but I can understand why they did it. M83 while gaining popularity in Europe, in particular their country of origin France have gained little popularity in the US. This is their sixth album after all, and I’ll be damned if I’d heard of them before this. And besides the song fits with the commercial, there is something subtly sexual about it which, as Sigmund Fraud would tell you, is a key component of every dream. It was just a shock to hear after only a week of being released.

Anyway, the album on the whole is a gem, sparkling from beginning to end. It listens a bit like looking through a window, peering into the private life of someone you’ve never met, never will meet, and being shown the innermost workings of their minds via pop songs. And hopefully its gives the band some sticking power here in the states. We could use a little M83 right now here in the states, and they better hurry up.