Girlatones - Fitting In Well

This post was transferred from Somnambulus.

Pop songs are easy currency.  And like small change, they are often as worthy.

But pop songs can be a very astute media.  Especially when they are more complex than easy lines and hooks.

That's why we are grateful for bands like The Modern Lovers, for The Cannanes.  For those perspicacious folk who have given us impossibly upbeat songs that defy the meleé; because they they are wry, and they artfully combine the guileless with the percipient.

Girlatones are canny modern lovers because they are insightful and because they are not afraid to entertain the affectual and the goofy; they bring it to light and give it a rightful place.  They remind us of what we care about, but may not want to admit.  That is what we magnetise to in the great songs of Richman and in the Gibson/O'Neill collaborations.

You can listen to the album here.

The album opens with Share the Love.  Love is about idealism, and in good measure -- realism.  Share the Love is a bright ode to the unquestionable credence that the idealistic can measure the realistic.

Girlatones are also well grounded and can weave brightness with careful twists of seemingly inadvertent irony.  And it is here that the pop song becomes art that stands time.

You're My Friend is a brilliant play on reflection, attraction, and aspiration.  Like Share the Love, the song builds toward the end of the song.  In the first song, it is just one word that is a testament to their belief -- at 1:36 -- "Share".  One word, that could almost go unnoticed, that stands alone.  Similarly, at 1:57 in You're My Friend, the chord change simulates the transgression through the glass, as the unreal becomes the unreal real: the double negative that fulfils the protagonist's positive.  And the break through is honestly and fallibly reflected in Jesse Williams' voice at 2:23, precisely on the right word, because of their common vision.  The premise is personified by the quirky guitars at 1:27.  Here is another strength of Girlatones that defies simplistic pop: they know how to make the music reflect the intention.

Recipes to Me is much more complex than the collage of images may at first imply.  The incongruity of the concepts cleverly captures the conflicting ideals of the protagonist and antagonist.  The contract between the led and the misleading, faith and betrayal in almost impossible circumstances.  It highlights commitment and manipulated reality for self-righteousness.  Whatever failure could be cited in justification, it is an ultimate abuse; but the genius lies in Williams' ability to paint it with his unfailing sight on love.

Misunderstood has been my favourite song in Girlatones' set this last year, and is perfectly placed on the album.  It is multivalenced, and here, everything Girlatones do so well, everything they believe in, is tested.  It is the most untypical song on the album, it is the most untypical song that I have heard them play since I saw them at their first gig -- a year ago almost to the day.  But it here that everything shines.  It takes the challenge with conviction in lyric and some excellent musicianship.  Listen to it playing understated to 2:16, then listen to the cymbals chime in brilliantly, and then face down at 2:30.  They begin to come into their own at 2:33, then that indefatigable guitar starts to twist it around at 2:39, to come out, so coruscating, at 2:45.  Listen to the drummer driving the ride all through that, and build ominously through the bass drum to 3:42.  Then the guitars take over, and Booty comes back in as brilliantly as before.  Though the guitars take the lead, listen to Tam Matlakowski (Tam Vantage) on the bass.  Williams has chosen the most apposite musicians to realise his score.  Ironically it is here, on the bass, where Matlakowski holds onto the brightness -- where he emulates the hope -- the lifts the whole song through this complex and beautiful cacophony.  So understated and strong.  So perfect.  To the close.

Misunderstood, deliciously long at 4:51, is the volta on the album.  Williams, as in lyric, knows how to craft form in the shape of this album.  Misunderstood is a considered choice at the fourth song on the album.  We have been treated to unconditional love, and despite that, we have seen it's faith in breach, and misunderstood.  Then listen to the opening lines of Fever.

Fever opens with stomping guitars.  But Williams and Leah Senior (Leah Senior) pivot their musical lines too, to bring the brightness in.  If you know Girlatones, you know the nature of these guitarists' collaboration, and it is all about bright landscapes.  Despite the opening lines, they profess love in lyric and Williams' unswerving harmonica at 0:59, 1:56 and 2:49.

Put Me Back Together illustrates the fragility felt when we believe we are defined by being loved.  Perhaps it also shows the redemptive power that is capable in love.  Girlatones seemingly simplistically, but carefully, craft the incongruence through a musical helix: the bass works up as the guitars work down and vice versa, creating uncompromised harmony.  They depict the conflict between who we believe we are, and our perceived sense of wholeness from the relationship.

Park Crowd seems to call out the pretension that permeates the north side.  "You make decisions to switch off your awareness" also calls it for everyone who follows convenience over awkward reality: "I've gone and lost faith in you".  Sometimes calling it and staying true can be a lonely path.  Williams depicts it with his indomitable optimism, "Just when you think you're all alone / Then you find a friend."  There'd be many who'd be happy to be outside "the circle", and where "the party starts again".

One of the endearing elements on this album are in the moments after the songs finish - an additional drum beat, the fade and bend of a guitar note, and here, Senior's beautiful laugh!

2 Become 1 is an ingenious play on words, and it's focus on equality in relationship.  The baritone tuning contrasts Williams' register in this song, again claiming balance and equality between them and the final lyrics.  The guitar switches ironically before the close to a bright glissando.

Fitting in Well is what Girlatones do.  But with the right folk, because "there is more than market analysis on [their] mind".  Their irreverence is sweetly proto-punk.  They are controversial in as much as they are contra verse -- against the standardised pop songs, because their's is infused with a deeper meaning.

You're going to love Girlatones.  You can't help it.  But when you get your dose of goodness with them, it's only going to be good for you.

You can get your copy here.

Photos - Northcote Social Club - May 2017

© JoAnne Frances