For the better part of the year “Hellhole Ratrace” and “Lust for Life” from theSan Fransisco two-piece Girls have been in near constant rotation for me as two of my favorite songs from 2009. Listening to these two great songs (and watching their amazing videos), I kept wondering if there was any possibility that Girls could make a whole album that reflected their greatness. The quick and dirty answer is a resounding no, which is supremely disappointing, but in the end that doesn’t mean the album is a failure. After being initially disappointed that my unrealistic expectations were not met, I let the album sink in and have since found it to be a really good debut that keeps finding ways to impress me.

Album revolves around singer/guitarist/songwriter Christopher Owens creating his undeniably catchy, California sun-soaked pop songs. The crux of his writing is the fractured relationships in his life, which on the best songs create dramatic, timeless songs, but on the lesser tracks it finds Girls sounding trite and slightly over-dramatic (luckily this isn’t found on many songs). After the two previously mentioned singles, there are quite a few really great songs that show the significant talent of Owens. “Goddamn” starts out with a spare finger picked guitar part before adding assorted percussion with Owen’s voice breaking as he claims that “I’ll be god damned if I give up at the start.” “Big Bad Mean Motherfucker” finds the band channeling their inner surf rockers and is a funny take on a classic sound that breaks up the more serious, standard affair in the middle of the album.

Like on the rest of the album, the production job done by Chet “Jr.” Walker is excellent and helps to reign in and really highlight Owens’ wild, meandering, psychedelic ideas. The disc is wildly diverse, but no matter whether the songs are brittle folk, stomping surf rock or more aggressive pop music, Walker helps Owens create a stunning canvas with which he is able to tell his broken hearted laments. Another highlight is “Lauren Marie,” a song that is a stinging ode to lost love and could easily, in time, make its way into the rotation with “Hellhole Ratrace” and “Lust for Life” as essential songs from the year 2009. I would be remiss to claim that the unmentioned songs are bad, per say, but they don’t strike me with the brevity that the songs mentioned do. When writing songs that take their fabric from genres as easily mangled as folk and classic rock, the artist leaves themselves little wiggle room to not sound cheesy or inarticulate. It is fairly clear on Album that Girls have shot for the stars in terms of the ambition and scope of the songs they are trying to create. The unfortunate reality is that when you aim for sounding timeless on every song, sometimes you are going to fall on your face (unless you are Jeff Mangum). It may not have helped that they released their two best songs as singles many months in advance of the LP, but I can’t really blame the band for not wanting to sit on songs which are that good.

In the end, despite my initial disappointment, Girls have created a really strong debut record that has many more positives than negatives. Being a pessimistic person, I allowed the not-so-great-moments to initially keep the focus of my attention, but in the end I came to realize how great a record this is. While the album doesn’t again reach the dizzying heights of “Lust for Life” or “Hellhole Ratrace,” it still finds the duo creating some great retro sounding pop music. In the grand scheme of things, having two of my favorite songs of any given year on one record has to be worth something, right? While the record may have fallen short of my steroid-induced expectations, the clear eyed realist in me accepts that this is an excellent album, even if that is based on the face that my love for the record is anchored by only a handful of songs. Album is an impressive starting point and shows a band who have a very bright future ahead of them, hopefully recording more songs like “Lust for Life” and “Hellhole Ratrace.”

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