ALBUM REVIEW: GIRLBAND! – ‘GIRLBAND!’

With the modest hype that GIRLBAND! had a year or so ago (back when their exclamation mark was in place of the ‘I’), you almost wouldn’t believe this is their debut…anything. Kudos for not rushing in, sure, but even an EP when the iron was hot would’ve seen even greater returns. Instead—in what only time will deem as a move of extreme confidence or even extreme-er hubris—GIRLBAND! are relying on their own abilities alone to pull them back.

It’s a gutsy move; maybe too gutsy, to be perfectly honest. Based on what this self-titled album offers, GIRLBAND! aren’t an act who ooze indefinite longevity. The band that comes to mind most, in a few ways, is Crawlers, though even they’ve taken an arena-rock philosophy to their indie sound for added oomph. GIRLBAND! have seemingly taken a different direction, with a wider pool of rock influences to wade through and touch upon as and when they come.

Note the passivity of that description, though. Rarely do these songs feel meticulously built to field a drive to explore new climes; they sound the way they do because…well, just because. Take 5 AM, for example, which riffs on classic-rock form with its lyrical vernacular and the only significant guitar solo on the album, without any of the excess or beef that comes with the territory. The further step that would be required has been almost entirely forgone, almost as if that’s what GIRLBAND! are most apprehensive about.

In fairness, their production isn’t an obvious fit for balls-to-the-wall shredding, but surely that’s a further indictment on GIRLBAND! for not trying to do more, no? Other times it works, on Say Something’s broad-guitared ‘90s alt-wonk or the big, hazy whorls of Britpop on All My Friends. It just doesn’t prove very flexible overall, at least not past some obvious yardsticks. As a result, GIRLBAND! do seem smaller and weaker. Songs like Neighbour’s House and This Is Not Goodbye are not the norm, where they can catch on a freer, gusty pocket in the vein of Pale Waves or, indeed, Crawlers. More likely, songs feel small and underpowered,

No doubt, the intention was something more human and approachable in scale, to fit inside the parameters of human interactions and canon events that GIRLBAND! base their work upon. As far as those go, it’s probably what the band do best overall. Vocalist Georgie is very hangdog in her demeanour, the ultimate easy mode for a young musician navigating life’s myriad situations that still seems to work, more often than not. Similarly, the loose vocal harmonies on Televised and Cooking convey close-knit communality, particularly when they’re a bit shaggier and not perfectly overlapping. It’s the core tenet of GIRLBAND! that has the most legs already—feelings and interactions that balance the personal with the universal. It’s why the shift to a political backdrop on Again Again Again is far from an awkward veer; amid it all, personality carries the most.

Perhaps it’s not enough to save this, but leaving GIRLBAND!’s debut with some form of unabashed enthusiasm is better than none at all. At least there’s something to anchor whatever comes next, and the retooling that’s kinda necessary for it. Some definite bright spots aren’t doing enough on their own to cover for the general underwhelm that GIRLBAND! exhibit. Indie-rock is in a place that’s much more proactive and forward-thinking than what’s currently on display here, and it’s not even all that close. Had this come out during GIRLBAND’s big push, there might’ve been some additional kindness thrown in; now…not so much.

For fans of: Crawlers, The Beaches, Destroy Boys

‘GIRLBAND!’ by GIRLBAND! is released on 13th November on Kartel Music Group.

Words by Luke Nuttall