Girls
Album
True Panther
by David Chiu
On their latest album, the San Francisco-based band Girls draws from a lot of influences, from Neil Diamond (the poppy “Laura”) through Phil Spector (“Lauren Marie”) to greaser rock (“Big Bad Mean Motherfucker”). Certainly the use of harmonies and echo contribute to a retro sound that is pretty upbeat, sometimes lush, and definitely melodic. But Album’s songs are meditations of a broken heart in which the narrator is pleading with the girl to be with him in the song “Laura.” Or in “Hellhole Ratrace” he just hates the way his life is going (“I don’t want to die,” he at first sings) but knows he’s got to change (“Sometimes you just got to make it yourself”). Girls achieve two things on this excellent record: the ability to rock and to move the listener with sincerity.
