Girls – Album

Restructuring the catchy melodies and stripped-bare musical architecture of the Ramones for a west coast beach house garage party, the San Francisco-based two-man duo Girls (Christopher Owens and Chet “JR” White ) have crafted a infectious and charming debut album of California sunshine pop and fuzz-out surf guitar haziness. With a backstory that includes childhood cult indoctrination, a millionaire surrogate and prescription drug addictions, it all synthesizes down into their psychological-evaluation opening track “Lust For Life”, as Owens line-lists aspirations for normalcy: boyfriend, father, suntan, pizza, beach house. “Ghost Mouth” slows down the signature ‘boom ba-boom kssh’ beat of the Ronettes to deliver an ode of dejected isolation and AM gold. Elsewhere, they unleash huge waves of sound as on “Summertime” which drops into hypnotic, wavering sonics of being lost in the curl, or “Big Bad Mean Motherfucker” which revs up and lets loose with an over-charged greasy guitar solo, with background harmonies wooing the whole affair in loving Beach Boy tribute. A deceptively simple record but executed perfectly.