The second biggest comeback of a band with “Girls” in their name this year!
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Ian Mathers: Sometimes, all I want out of music are guitars that I can use like a scouring pad on my fallible human brain, and enough sheer noise and a modicum of melody behind them so I can really get the scouring pad into all the nooks and crannies, and in those moments if you can give me that sensation I would give you anything.
[8]
Julian Axelrod: Growing up in LA at the height of the early 2010s indie surf revival, that specific strain of yoga grunge was my locally sourced bread and imitation butter. (While I somehow never got into Vivian Girls the first time around, I was obsessed with bassist Katy Goodman’s solo project La Sera.) So needless to say, this sort of scuzzy sun-soaked speedball is Extremely My Shit. I like how the hooky harmonies nearly get drowned out by the unrelenting guitar clang, but I love how they fight their way to the front. It’s a romantic take on despair that feels closer to LA legends X than the Beach Goth casualties of the Vivian Girls’ heyday. If I’m getting nostalgic from the reunion of a band I never listened to, there’s gotta be something there.
[7]
Michael Hong: Their three-part harmonies are good, yeah, but what’s the point of a good harmony if it’s buried under almost suffocatingly tight guitars and a thick layer of reverb?
[5]
Katie Gill: That sound mixing is very much “we’re going to mix this for the aesthetic” and a lot less “we’re going to mix this in a way where our vocalist is audible.” There’s the possibility of something fun here. But I legitimately couldn’t hear it.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: I was not there for the Vivian Girls Wars, am less than thrilled about the re-litigation of The Complicated Feminist Legacy of Hipster Runoff accompanying their reunion, and seldom feel more deeply out of place than when reading about the old days. But I do historically love this sort of music; there’s just so much of it now (partly, to be fair, thanks to the Vivian Girls), and plenty stronger than “Something to Do.” The guitars jangle and the arrangement is beefy even before the whole thing almost turns into “One Way or Another” — but all that just highlights the fact that the melodic line is rather glum even given the subject.
[6]
Kalani Leblanc: Vivian Girls never approach their feelings with an entire scoff and jokey belittling like related garage bands (eg Tacocat and many other Seattle groups), but with a respect, half-scoff and shrug. Their songs articulate an understanding that one’s feelings seem ridiculous to onlookers, no matter how vivid they feel to oneself. Even “Take It As It Comes” is presented as a joke while fully resonating, and gives you a chance to laugh as they remind you of your own boy obsessions. These sincere, girlish songs coming from cool girls with bangs and nice glasses were a revelation to hear through their harmonies and fuzzed strings. Flash forward eight years later: Cassie, Ali and Katy are back and release something practically the same. Not that “Something to Do” could have been a release in their heyday, but it’s the same ol’ Viv Girls with maturity applied. That maturity makes a slight switch and mellows them down. Cassie may be forever bored, but isn’t the same girl behind her still blonde-brown bangs. Though I could be wrong and it’s just that LA has changed them, but Vivian Girls are forever.
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