GIRLS – Father, Son, Holy Ghost (Part 2)

Dave decided to partake in a science experiment: having no prior knowledge of Girls whatsoever, he threw on his headphones, gave it one solid listen through on his way to work, and provided us with the play by play. The result? “WTF?” (I’m paraphrasing.) Dave needs more listens.

From: David Weintrop
To: Brandon Hall

Brandon – I have to say, of all the time I spend reading opinions on the Internet, you’ve probably got the kindest ‘killjoy critical hat’ I’ve come across. I get a disclaimer saying “caution: I have become a curmudgeon”, then you go on to say nothing worse than calling the album ‘uniform and consistent, if occasionally a bit cloying or maudlin.’  I feel like on most blogs, when that is the most critical part of the review, the author might start out with a ‘caution: I am in a surprisingly good mood’ warning. Anyways, so there is this album right….

Unlike past reviews, where I spent time prepping for the album by reading up on the band, learning their history and familiarizing myself with their catalog, since I’m new to Girls, I thought I’d try a new approach: the blank slate. Instead of taking in all the meta info I could about the album and band, I decided I would try to do a one-and-done review: listen to the album closely, start to finish, then try and write up how it went. (In the spirit of honesty, I did end up going back through and re-listening to parts of it while putting together this review). This proved to be an interesting exercise, but ultimately left me a bit confused. Not all albums can you dive right into without some context of what you are about to hear. This is one such album.

Track 1, “Honey Bunny” – opens with a driving beat, surf guitar and cruising bass-line. Walking to work, bobbing my head, I got this – this makes sense to me, I dig this. Track 2, “Alex” – a little less surf rock, but I’m still with them, good tune, cool guitar lines mixed in with some neat transitions. A sense of what Girls is all about starting to take shape. Then we hit Track 3, “Die.” When this hit, I had to check my iPod to make sure I was still listening to the same album (note: this was not the only time I did this on my first listen through the album. In fact, I think I checked at my iPod again halfway through this song to confirm I was still on Track 3). If the first half of Die caused me to revise the picture I was forming of this band, the second half of the tune caused me to throw away the image I had created all together. The opening of the track was heavy and fast, very reminiscent of 70’s hard rock, half way through, it abruptly transitions into classic Pink Floyd: simple, clean guitar strumming backing an exploratory, drifting guitar solo. From there, they take their brief Pink Floyd moment into a space most often populated by bands who sing about dragons, knights and epic battles, for reference see: Rush.

Hmmm – that seems like a lot for a person to have gone through during their 10 minute walk to the train in the morning, but I guess that is what happens when you’re listening intently trying to come up with things to say about an album on a single listen.

After a pretty up-and-down first couple tracks, Track 4, “How Can I Say I Love Your” is where I felt the album hit its stride, aside from “Vomit” (which I’ll come back to), the remainder of the album had a similar feel, sometimes faster and more upbeat (“Magic,” “How Can I say I love You”), sometimes slower and maybe a bit maudlin (“Forgiveness,” “Love Life,” “Jaime Marie”), but on the whole had that uniformity and consistency that you didn’t like, but as a new listen give me comfort and saved me from having to look at my iPod ever track to make sure I hadn’t accidentally changed albums.

And then there is this track called “Vomit.” I hate to do this – but I think I’m going to play the ‘this song requires more than one listen’ card. Brandon, you hit the nail on the head with the “Great Gig in the Sky” reference, but that was probably the only part of the song that made sense to me. Reading your effusive write-up of that song further reinforces my belief that I need to listen to it a few more times before I can properly weigh in.

So my plan is to spend lots of time doing all the background legwork and listening for the next post that I didn’t do for this post. Brandon – as you are so well versed in all things Girls (hmmm, taken out of context, I feel like that could mean a number of other things), where do I start? I know this is only their second album (with an EP thrown in) – what else do I need to know? Who do they hang out with? Who do they (or others) cite as their inspiration? Why is a band of dudes called Girls?

Your love is like a river.

My love is like a ship on the ocean, sailing with a cargo full of love and devotion.

David