Brandon dived into Girls’ second LP with the fervor of a five year old on Christmas morning only to find way too many frilly socks. Dave gave a play by play of his first experience with Girls on his walk to work and came away all WTF. The album, like the band, is a mixed bag that seems to lack a discernible identity. “Vomit” is amazing though. Also flutes. And hipsters.
Pre-order Father, Son, Holy Ghost here.
From: Brandon Hall
To: David Weintrop
After Girls released Broken Dreams Club last year, following their stunning debut, Album, it was obvious to anyone paying attention that this was a band a band to be reckoned with – a shape shifting, enigmatic, and supremely talented group that could seemingly do anything. If Album was an exuberant mission statement full of look at me bravado and showmanship, and Broken Dreams Club was a band not just expanding their sound but creating an entirely new context with which they should be regarded, Father, Son, Holy Ghost is a band supremely confident in what they do, all swagger and chutzpah.
Man, was I ready to love this album. My first couple spins, I was in love. “They did it again!” I wanted to shout. And really, when they do something well, they do it exceedingly well. Like, better than just about anyone. Centerpiece, first single, and album standout “Vomit” is a deliriously thrilling six and a half minutes replete with quiet, down tempo fuzz-backed verses, glorious organ and electric guitar choruses, a fucking kick ass guitar solo, and a gospel choir buttressed coda that’s as electrifying as Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky” or Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” Turn that shit up!
All that for a lonely song about searching hopelessly for love – a theme this album never tires of – and another example of Girls’ prodigious talents with the long form song that they’ve been using to miraculous effect on their other album standouts, “Hellhole Ratrace” from Album and “Carolina” from Broken Dreams Club.
The thing is, the thing that’s bothering me – on Album, this out of nowhere band went ahead and seemingly did everything: cool 60s surf-pop. shoegaze, garage rock, folk. And they did it all with aplomb. Then, on Broken Dreams Club they brought out a horn section, wrote some exceptionally beautiful, structurally complex songs and really established themselves as a band bound by no genre or preconception. But on Father, Son, Holy Ghost, I feel like they fall too easily into a pattern. Too many of these songs rely on the soft, slow ballad with the epic finish. It’s always done well, and the coda is frequently enthralling. But it starts to feel like a formula on this album, and it weighs the second half of the album down a bit.
Then again, where Album was maybe a bit desultory, this album is nothing if not uniform and consistent, if occasionally a bit cloying or maudlin.
Gah, see? I’m talking myself out of it, and I really like a lot of these songs! Dave, I’m actually really interested to see what you have to say about this album, because I really have no idea whether or not this would be your bag. Not just this album, but Girls in general. With most of the people I have dialectics with, I feel like I can gauge where they’re going to stand on a particular album, but for you and this album, I have no idea.
Have at it!
“My love is like a river,”
Brandon
Girls – “Honey Bunny” from Father, Son, Holy Ghost
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
Girls – “Lust For Life” from Album (because they should do more of this)
From: Brandon Hall
To: David Weintrop
But didn’t that uniformity get old? Back to this in a moment.
Girls is primarily, officially, just two dudes. Lead singer and guitarist, Christopher Owens, and bassist and producer, Chet White. I can’t say why they’re called Girls, but I don’t really know the reason for most band names, and usually, when the genesis of a given name is revealed, it’s disappointing, unflattering, or just lame – something one of the dudes said while drunk at a bar. For what it’s worth, their debut, Album, had a lot of songs written about and titled after various girls.
Also, I don’t want to spend much time here delving into band back story, but Owens does happen to possess maybe one of the craziest rock and roll bios I’ve ever seen. This is the opening to the Pitchfork review of Album which I’m just going to block quote here:
Girls frontman Christopher Owens grew up in the Children of God cult. His older brother died as a baby because the cult didn’t believe in medical attention. His dad left. He and his mother lived around the world, and the cult sometimes forced his mother to prostitute herself. As a teenager, Owens fled and lived as a Texas gutter-punk for a while. Then a local millionaire took Owens under his wing, and Owens moved to San Francisco. There, he and Chet “JR” White formed Girls, and recorded Album, their debut album, under the influence of just about every kind of pill they could find.
I mean, come on. That’s just ridiculous. Knowing this also brings into context the mother theme that shows up throughout the album, most prevalently on opener “Honey Bunny” and, of course, “My Ma.” I don’t know what kind of pills they were on when they made Father, Son, Holy Ghost but they were probably downers and most definitely the wrong ones.
OK. Full curmudgeon mode, now? I may be going there. You know, by the end of my last letter to you, I was feeling much more pessimistic about the album than the tone of what I had actually written had let on. Understand that after Album, Broken Dreams Club, and the pre-album-release single “Vomit,” I was totally ready to crown Girls the “Newest Best Thing.” And I loved the first three songs on the album. “Die” fucking rocks. And I think what the band is doing makes a lot more sense when you look at them as a postmodern Elvis Costello, absolutely afraid of nothing; willing and able to try everything. Their cool so permanently, intrinsically intact that they can write pseudo-country-by-way-of-Queen’s-“Crazy-Little-Thing-Called-Love” tracks “How Can I Say I Love You” and “Magic” as well as cloying, purple, melodramatic ballads like “Just a Song” without risking a shred of their cred. So I was predisposed to “loving” this album and it took a while to let go of those preconceptions and allow myself to be truly disappointed.
I cannot express enough how much I hate “Just a Song.” I hate it more than I love “Vomit” and it does the horrific disservice of directly following “Vomit” and beating its epic-form length by 17 seconds, clocking in at 6:48. I think “Just a Song” is the key to my disappointment with this album. I was wrong when I said “Vomit” was the centerpiece. Standout, it may be, but it’s an aberration. The true centerpiece is “Just a Song,” a stab your eyes out, reflexive skip-button-pushing, saccharine-soaked ballad that finds Owens spending the final three minutes cooing “Love. Love. Love. It’s just a song.” over fluttering flutes. Oh, just kill me.
And this weepy ballad mentality seems pervasive on the album, “My Ma,” “Just a Song,” “Forgiveness,” “Love Life,” “Jamie Marie” – some good, some bad, some with kick ass codas that almost make up for what came before (see: “Forgiveness,” “Jamie Marie”). This really frustrates me, primarily because Girls have shown what they’re capable of.
While many contemporary bands pick one bygone era sound to copy — be it 80s new wave, 70s garage rock, 90s slacker punk — Girls are master mimics, able to take seemingly any and all genres and reconceptualize them, make them totally their own. I actually really love their 60s Righteous Brothers sounding waltz, “Love Life,” for instance. It feels delightfully familiar and yet fresh, like a remodeled, souped up ’64 Mustang. And they have been doing this since they arrived on the scene, aping one sound after another while amazingly never feeling derivative or tired. What’s most fascinating to me about this band, beyond how prodigiously skilled Owens and White are, is how they are the quintessential postmodern rock band, assimilating every nostalgic urge they can think of, dusting it off, and reshaping it with precision and thrilling audacity. They’re hipsters with sincerity — my favorite kind.
So why settle for cheesy 7 minute ballads with flutes?
“Nothing’s going to be just fine, no we’re all going straight to hell tonight,”
Brandon
Girls – “Laura” from Album
From: David Weintrop
To: Brandon Hall
First things first, on behalf of flautists everywhere – the flute is a proud and noble instrument that doesn’t always suck. In fact, sometimes it even rocks (for proof, check out this video – flute solo starts 2:25 in, but for good measure, it’s best to just watch the whole thing).
I think the big difference between your thoughts on the album and mine come down to expectations. Your coming in with sky-high expectations following their first two albums, a killer single, and a hope they fulfill their ‘quintessential postmodern rock band’ potential. I’m coming in thinking, “Hey, here is a band that makes music, I’ll give them a listen.” As a result, I was left with an album that I thought was good, not great, that will stay on my iPod and probably not get skipped when its tracks come on (except “Die” – blech), where as you come away so angry that you were willing to making outrageous claims about entire instruments (poor flute).
Having gone back through and listened to the rest of the catalog and read up on their history and prior success, I did come away with a different impression of the band and their sound. To me this album seems to fit right in line with the prior two. Album being the inaugural: we are Girls, here is what we do (insert joke about the band being two dudes here); on their follow up, they start to expand their sound introducing a bit more to the mix (notably the horns you mentioned in your first post); and on this third album they continue the trend: “Hey – we should add some ‘Great Gig in the Sky’-esque vocals to a few tracks” and “Have we used any surf guitar yet? No – let’s change that!” “Have we done Elvis Costello – we have? – oh right, what about the righteous brothers?” and maybe most prominently “How many 6+ minute love songs do we have?” Whereas their EP was a small step, with a few new ideas and sounds. This album was a much bigger step, and thus, much more of everything. So what does that leave one with? An album that is somewhere between eclectic and confused, depending on how much you liked it.
I think it is interesting that you loved the first three tracks so much. Throw in “How Can I Say I Love You” and the album opens with four songs and four sounds drawing from four pretty diverse influences. Actually, it would be a fair bit more than 4 influences considering that within some songs the sound and style vary drastically. (see, again: “Die.”) As a music critic who listens very intently to what is happening, I can see how you could really dig this; as a music listener who usually listens to music while doing something else, I get a very different result. I’m trying to think of when I’d reach for this album. If I wanted to hear songs that sound up-tempo and surf rock-y (like “Honey Bunny”), I’d pick an album/band that had that sound. If I wanted to listen to slower, more laid back 6+ minute love songs, I’m sure I wouldn’t put on an album that had a song like “Die” on it that I’d have to prepare for. And as for “Die,” since I’m almost never in the time or place where I want to kick ass for 3 minutes, then get really quiet and reflective for the next 2, I don’t see a place in my rotation for it, and will probably always just skip it when it comes on.
One final thought that I’ve been putting off since the start. “Vomit.” In my last post, I shied away from weighing in on what I thought of it as I knew where you stood but wasn’t ready to take a position, myself. A half-dozen listens later, mixed with a couple listens through their entire catalog and I am ready. And I think you are right. To save me from having to try and top your take on it, I’ll just drop a block quote from your first post:
“Vomit” is a deliriously thrilling six and a half minutes replete with quiet, down tempo fuzz-backed verses, glorious organ and electric guitar choruses, a fucking kick ass guitar solo, and a gospel choir buttressed coda that’s as electrifying as Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky” or Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” Turn that shit up!
In other words, it kicks ass, Turn that shit up!
Dude, “It’s just a song,”
Dave
Girls – “Carolina” from Broken Dreams Club EP
From: Brandon Hall
To: David Weintrop
You’re right. I shouldn’t have taken my frustrations out on the flute. It’s a fine instrument. Except the way Girls used it on “Just a Song.” The flute doesn’t always suck but it definitely does on that song, as do the lyrics, and the singing, and the arrangement.
I’m glad you like “Vomit.” That song is just too cool. But it’s too bad you so dislike “Die.” You described it as kicking ass for three minutes and being “really quiet and reflective” for the last two, but I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. The last two minutes are rather epic, as in the epilogue after a great battle with the sun setting over a newly conquered kingdom. It’s more in the vein of Rush (like you referenced earlier) or Led Zeppelin, but most reminds me of the iconic coda to “Layla.” Albeit, far from iconic.
And I disagree that Father, Son, Holy Ghost is a bigger step for them than the Broken Dreams Club EP was. That EP was jam packed full of ideas and experiments, introspective songwriting that was more storytelling than anything, and arrangements and song structures they had never previously shown a facility with. Father, Son, Holy Ghost does any of this sparingly at best, and too many of its songs do the same thing.
Though we disagree marginally on some issues, I think we both agree that the album conjures mixed feelings. Some songs we like (“Vomit”!!) and others we could probably do without.
I’ve been thinking about what you said when talking about this album as a “mishmash of songs” that would never fit a given situation. That notion of uniformity and consistency bandied about when we started this discussion has been promptly and resolutely thrown out, appropriately so. The one thing you can say about Girls is that they do not make background music. They make music that demands to be paid attention to, like a kid holding a stage hostage at a talent show, refusing to quit until his bag of tricks is empty. I fucking love that about them.
The last thing I want is 10 songs that all sound alike. Still, I think your point is salient and builds upon my previous declaration of this band being the quintessential postmodern rock band. In being capable of mimicking so many past genres and sounds, they leave themselves lacking a solid, individual identity. If someone were to ask, “What do Girls sound like?” You might respond, “They sound like everyone. But literally everyone.” This issue of identity, of course, extends to the hipster culture that Girls are inextricably a part of. The hipster scene is one of consumption and assimilation of past subcultures. A subculture in itself that recontextualizes the fashion but loses the spirit of every niche group before it – groups that had some M.O., some purpose, some ideology. An identity. Something the hipster sect dearly lacks.
And maybe something Girls are still searching for.
“Easy come and easy go. Whatever.”
Brandon
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