Girls’ lead-singer, Christopher Owens, was raised by the Children of God cult, better now known as The Family International. A hefty portion of his adolescence was filled with major losses within his family: his father left the family when Owen was young, his younger brother died due to medical complications and because the cult didn’t believe in receiving clinical treatment, and Owens’ mom was forced to travel around the world to spread the word of the cult. Because of their radical beliefs, Owens left, but the imprint of their ideology is apparent in Girls’ work, especially on their sophomore LP Father, Son, Holy Ghost.
When explaining the rationale behind the album’s title Owens said in a recent interview, “[The] title suggests that there’s another element to art and music that’s very spiritual… It’s more of a classic bible reference and how it applies to the music…. There’s just a spiritual quality to the music that you can’t describe.” The obvious spiritual moments, on the 11-track album, emerge as a soulful gospel choir assists Owens in “Love Like A River” and in the less-religiously-appropriate-titled track “Vomit”.
While most musicians focus on the melody in reference to the lyrics, Owens, Chet “JR” White and company focuses on the melody of the music. The ideology sounds a bit strange, but listening to every song sans the opener puts it into perspective. The songs are crafted to encompass an entire thought process rather than a spur of emotion. A song like “Die” begins with a prog-rock guitar duet, then swerves into a surf rock anthem, goes back to prog rock and mellows down into a psychedelic reprise.
Most artists who attempt such modifications fail because they overload the listener’s ears with too many sounds. Girls create an agreeable medium by balancing the complexity of their instrumentation for simple lyrics that stick either because of their poignancy or because of repetition. “It just feels like it’s gone. All of it’s gone. Gone away. Seems like nobody’s happy now,” Owen repeatedly moans in “Just a Song”. As the song tapers off, his mantra of “love” becomes embedded with the closing instruments.
The theme of lost love is a continuation from their last effort Broken Dreams Club EP. While that EP sounded like a man who was going through a period of depression, this album is borderline suicidal. In the 20 seconds of dialogue that exists in “Die”, Owen’s approach to coping with heartache transitions from getting fucked up to going to hell to the realization that the only way to stop the pain is to just die.
With all of this depression talk, there is a glimpse of light that comes from the idea that if hell is anywhere near as exciting as this sophomore album, it’s best to book your ticket immediately.
