If an artist is only the sum of his influences, can there be room left for original creation? Or is there only endless rote interpretation of what led them to create music in the first place? Still, you can't blame an artist for adhering closely to their own musical preferences, to do so would be tantamount to asking them to stop listening to their favorite bands. But there is a fine balance needed between the application of influential preference and the original thought behind the execution of those same musical inclinations. You can't just be an exact copy of those artists whom you admire. Some bands understand this better than others. Those that do have released amazing albums this year, which has turned out to be the wearing-your-influences-on-your-sleeves year for music. Bands like Yuck and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart have proudly taken cues from early 90's rock radio and have managed to give them a new and creative update, which is impressive seeing as how often other bands attempt the same thing and fail miserably. Others like Cults and Ty Segall have take Phil Spector-esque pop and 60's garage rock respectively and made them their own, displaying modern interpretations of 60's musical sensibilities. And all these bands accomplish this feat of incorporating their own tastes in music with their desire to create something that is more than just the sum of those influences by respecting their forebears, not simply mimicking their sounds.
And no band has done this as well, or with so many different styles of music, as Girls. Picking and choosing from his favorite genres, Christopher Owens has crafted an album bursting at the seams with ideas and creative musical subterfuge. The jump in execution and ability from his well-regarded debut to this, his sophomore full-length, is staggering. I thought that Album was a creative exercise in bedroom pop nostalgia but that it lacked a cohesive center to hold it all together, though I did enjoy it quite a lot. Father, Son, Holy Ghost takes the highs of that debut and erases any hint that Owens may have hit his peak and ridden the praise of that album further then he had a right. Each song on Father feels as though it could carry an entire album of like-minded tracks. "Hunny Bunny", with its surf-rock inspired guitar lines and Owens lyrically self-deprecating view of himself, feels like the beginning of the best surf album Dick Dale never recorded, with a melody so subtle and rhythmic that it feels both modern and ageless. "Die" duplicates the riffage of early Black Sabbath, or Queens Of The Stone Age if we're looking to more modern comparisons. And just so his contemporaries don't feel left out, "Vomit" appropriates and betters the indie rock motifs of the last 10 years--the slow building plucked and strummed guitars, the crescendo inducing follow-up, it's all here in spades. Father, Son, Holy Ghost feels less like the work of a single album and more an anthology of music from the past 40 years. And if that sounds a bit exaggerated, it's not. This album sounds like so many different things and yet still has that solid foundation, that center around which these songs orbit--a heart, as battered and insecure as it is, is there. Girls have not only succeeded in replicating the highs of their previous releases, they've managed to outdistance them in every way. This is an album which connects the present with the past in a way that defines our entire relationship with music, even the way we listen and react to it. And if a record can do that, do we not owe it our attention, even for just a moment? I say we do. So sit your ass down and listen. I got something for you to hear.
Tracklisting:
01. Honey Bunny
02. Alex
03. Die
04. Saying I Love You
05. My Ma
06. Vomit (listen to the mp3 below)
07. Just a Song
08. Magic
09. Forgiveness
10. Love Like a River
11. Jamie Marie
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