You might not have expected us to like this. Well, guess what…
[Myspace]
[4.20]
Edward Okulicz: Welcome back, The Bluetones! Why do you have such a horrible singer now?
[2]
Alex Macpherson: Bad Britpop jangle with a hint of insufferable croaking freakfolk affectation in the voice. Could easily pass for Shed Seven or, like…who were the really, really bad one? Dodgy? Cast? It’s that awful.
[1]
Martin Skidmore: A horrible vocal wrecks a pleasantly bouncy old-fashioned West Coast pop number. His strangled nasal whine is really unpleasant, but despite perky enough playing and an approximation of a tune, when it doesn’t wander off the point in a too-many-spliffs way, I don’t think this lot would be a new Beach Boys even with a great singer. With this one they are pretty much unlistenable.
[1]
Chuck Eddy: For a singer and songwriter who I gather has a rep as a major weirdo thanks to his Jesus Freak upbringing, Christopher Owens sure does come off as a totally run-of-the-mill wimp here. Give or take his clogged adenoids, what is supposed to set him apart?
[3]
Alfred Soto: I’ve been more ambivalent about this album than any other released in the second half of the year. It’s an achievement to puree and serve Graham Parker and Elvis Costello as teen fodder; on the other hand, the teen fodder, unmediated by irony, makes me squirm, especially since I’m no fan of Animal Collective’s stabs at approximating the uninhibited melodrama that supposedly makes teenage emotion the sine qua non of Being Alive. But where Animal Collective is abstruse and therefore grotesque, this is specific and merely gross. Girls would rather pin down those teenage emotions instead of evoking them, and I’d rather squirm while remembering them than skip to the next track.
[8]
John M. Cunningham: The first couple of times I heard “Laura,” I thought the verses sounded a bit like the Dismemberment Plan’s “Following Through.” Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother mentioning such a tenuous resemblance, except for the fact that a) Dan Weiss made the same observation, and b) Christopher Owens is such a rock and roll magpie, it’s plausible it’s a half-cloaked tribute. But then again, those straight, jaunty guitar chords could just as well be inspired by “Sweet Caroline”. And besides, that’s not even what I like most about this, which is the way Owens’s wounded voice plays off the song’s carefree, sun-kissed bounce. Or maybe it’s the gorgeous indulgence of the coda.
[7]
Anthony Easton: R Kelly redux, and people who know more about this than I do will tell me I am wrong, but I still find it as seductive as hell.
[7]
Ian Mathers: Sure, this hits lots of classic rock/indie sonic and songwriting tropes, but it hits them gracelessly (and at least half of them I hate anyway). This sounds like it could fit on the last couple of Wilco albums, and that isn’t a compliment.
[2]
Alex Ostroff: I normally have trouble approaching acts that have been as hyped as Girls. Staggeringly high expectations are rarely met, and have a tendency to obscure bands’ actual merits. Somehow, “Laura” bypasses this. While I don’t hear the work of a genius here, the weight of Christopher Owens’ much-cited biography fails to crush the appeal of his pleasant and melodic songcraft. The music is sunny and AM-radio-inflected. The vocals have character, albeit by way of This Year’s Model-era Costello. If an elaborate backstory was necessary to direct me to this unassuming gem, so be it – everyone needs a hook.
[8]
Doug Robertson: A less energetic answer to McFly. Although I really, really don’t want to know what the actual question was.
[3]