Girls | Father, Son, Holy Ghost

True Panther Sounds/Matador (2011)
By ALEXANDRA CAVALLO  |  September 13, 2011
3.0 3.0 Stars

girls-main

Someone once famously said, "You can't go home again." Christopher Owens seems to be referencing that dude — though whether he's nostalgic for a home that never was, a girl he never knew, or a girl he once had changes as rapidly as the tenor of this untidy yet improbably cohesive and triumphant third album. Forget for a second that the singer/ringleader of this Bay Area outfit was raised in a fanatical religious cult. The reason Father, Son, Holy Ghost is so uniquely, imperfectly swell is because the band plainly give fuck-all about convention or stylistic uniformity. Opening with a rockabilly/ '60s-surf-rock anthem ("Honey Bunny") the album rapidly devolves into a variety of sentiments about love and noise that ranges from the forlorn to the unhinged. Owens seems at once gloriously fucked up and sweetly guiless, and each song has immediacy. Tempo and tone change abruptly, urging you forward with a firm but mostly amiable hand. That the most compelling romantic ballad is a grunge rock-cum-gospel power stomp titled "Vomit" seems right. "Come into my heart," Owen croons, wiping upset from the corners of his mouth. You're tempted.

GIRLS + NOBUNNY | Paramount, 559 Washington St, Boston | September 24 @ 8 pm | $20 | 617.824.8000

Related: Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008, Various Artists | Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965 - 1968, Various Artists | Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova 1966–1970, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Paramount, CD reviews,  More more >
| More

Most Popular
Blogs
 More: Phlog  |  Music  |  Film  |  Books  |  Politics  |  Media  |  Election '08  |  Free Speech  |  All Blogs
CURRENT CONTESTS
 All Promotions . . .
ARTICLES BY ALEXANDRA CAVALLO
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THINGS THAT GO BUMP AND GRIND IN THE NIGHT  |  October 24, 2012
    Like the coyote and the fisher cat, the Boston go-go dancer is a nocturnal species that has returned in full force after a long period of declining numbers.
  •   REVIEW: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4  |  October 24, 2012
    The scares — and there have been some good ones — in the Paranormal franchise depend on what's not happening.
  •   ON THE CHEAP: DOOWEE & RICE  |  October 23, 2012
    When I finally strolled into DooWee & Rice, a new East Asian eatery in Powder House Square, close to closing time after a weirdly long drive from Central, I had beef and noodles on the brain.
  •   THE PRINCESS OF PUNK RAGES ON  |  October 24, 2012
    At 72 years old, with an almost half-century long career in the fashion industry under her self-designed belt ("I only wear my own things," she tells me) Zandra Rhodes still has no desire to rest on her laurels.
  •   YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG: HITTING THE CLUB  |  October 24, 2012
    Halloween isn't just the one time of year when we all get to pretend to be somebody else (the stumbling zombie you sometimes morph into at 2 am doesn't count); it also offers the opportunity to hit nightspots you might not usually frequent.

 See all articles by: ALEXANDRA CAVALLO

LATEST SLIDESHOWS

All Slideshows