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NSFW Delivered By Still Life Still

Still Life Still get very, very vulgar.

Still Life Still

Girls Come Too

Released on Aug 25, 2009

The tittle of the full-length debut from Canadian art-cockers Still Life Still means exactly what you think it does. See what I’ve done? In a daring move, I’ve employed overtly sexual language to make you think of the sentence I wrote in a different way. Likewise, artificial and distracting attempts at injecting profundity into songs with frank or disturbing imagery are casually inserted (sorry, had to) throughout Girls Come Too. Now, I’m no prude. When done well, explicit or erotic subject matter can make for compelling songwriting. For example, various of Still Life Still’s Arts & Crafts label-mates and musical contemporaries have handled psychosexual material with a deft combination of sensuality and sensitivity (see producer Kevin Drew’s endlessly replayable sad-sack anthem “Lover’s Spit” or any number of the melodramatic musings of Stars front man Torquil Cambpell). I’m sure that in some way it is exactly what the band is going for, but anyone who tells you that the following line isn’t a primary takeaway from their initial listen to Girls Come Too is either inattentive or lying:

“If you don’t mind my come on your tits, then I don’t mind your blood on my dick.”

 

Yes, that is an actual lyric. But how does the record sound, you ask? Beginning with first track “Danse Cave,” it is evident that Girls owes a lot to producers Drew and Marty Kinack, and the superior Canadian art-rock outfit Broken Social Scene. Though the band’s melodic sensibility is not nearly as refined, the similarities are striking and sonically the band comes off as a poor-man’s version of its more notorious compatriots. The influence of Drew in particular positively oozes from the record, particularly on the atmospheric “Flowers and a Wreath” and the driving lament “Pastel.”

“Kid” opens with a nice guitar line and “four on the floor” kick drum. When the vocal comes in, though, the song becomes bothersome in a way that is hard to place. Though the clichéd childhood-regression lyrics give way to perhaps the most egregious example of the record’s use of sexuality – a kinky schoolyard exhortation by vocalist Brendon Saarinen to “bleed on me” - that isn’t it. For you, dear reader, I searched the deepest recesses of my musical mind, and Eureka! It reminded me of that “Take A Picture” song! Remember Filter after they got totally weak? Seriously, listen to the two songs back to back, and you’ll see. Most troubling about the whole thing is that “Take A Picture” is significantly more memorable. The Filter Gambit, as I’ll call it, brings into stark relief the general flatness of the record’s songwriting, and helps to explain why the lyrics of Girls would so readily resort to gimmickry to make the songs stand out more than they normally would.

Despite its moments of affected, attention-starved reaching, Girls is not without its redeeming qualities, and there are some interesting things happening within every song. The guitar lines starting most of the album’s eleven tracks are dreamy and well conceived, the playing is dexterous, and the band makes very tasteful use of synthesizers that augment, rather than distract from, the instrumental arrangements. The nicely arranged “Knives In Cartoons” in particular contains a nice interplay between guitar and electronic instrumentation, and builds to a nice climax. Very often on rock albums like this one that emphasize atmosphere and sonic texture, the background can overwhelm the songs. On Girls, there is a great deal going on instrumentally, but it never overwhelms or distracts. Unfortunately, the record’s vocals have a similar effect that intrusive accompaniment tends to have on more “singer-oriented” albums, and sit rather clumsily on top of the mix. Even discounting the unhappy fact of the record’s uneven songwriting, the direct, “look-at-me” vocal style employed by Saarinen and guitarist-vocalist Eric Young seems terribly out of place with Drew and Kinack’s swirling production and makes for an inconsistent listening experience.

The prospect of a new rock release with raw, emotional lyrics and ties to Broken Social Scene is cause for great celebration. I was excited to hear this one, and I really wanted to like it. Ultimately, though, Girls Come Too is an affected, periodically annoying, and mostly forgettable exercise in conflicted identity. Sure, the album has its nice touches. But amid the pretty guitars and psychedelic synth textures, Girls’ misguided attempts at taboo-breaking avant-garde lyricism and slightly off-putting modern radio rock undercurrent make the prospect of long-term enjoyment unlikely.

Posted by Miguel Harvey on Jan 26, 2010 @ 9:00 am

still life still, girls come too