I remember our own JACK RABID‘s review of THE SHINS‘ sophomore album Chutes Too Narrow back when it came out in 2003. He said (I’m paraphrasing here) that it takes the pleasures of their debut (Oh, Inverted World) and doubles them. Well, I sort of feel the same way about this record, VIVIAN GIRLS‘ second full-length and the quick follow-up to last year’s self-titled debut.
I’ll put it this way. I don’t see this one winning them too many new fans, but fans of the debut and the style should be really pleased. It’s not that they’ve made the same record. Hardly! First off, the most notable difference (discernible in the album title, a line from the song “When I’m Gone”) is that the content is way darker than on the debut. This may be typical for a sophomore album, but this is no sophomore slump. There are countless examples of bands getting darker or changing their sound, sometimes purposely to piss off elements of their fanbase, on their second record. See DE LA SOUL‘s De La Soul is Dead, for example. In fact, like sophomore records by the aforementioned Shins, THE ARCADE FIRE, LCD SOUNDYSTEM and others, this is an even better follow-up to a great debut. Don’t let my description of the lyrical content fool you, though. This isn’t black metal or hardcore punk nihilism. In the best tradition of their forebearers (particularly the C86 scene, related bands like SHOP ASSISTANTS and THE PRIMITIVES and the early ’90s group TIGER TRAP), boy/girl lyrics predominate. This time around, though, the songs are better than on the debut (a record with 3 really great songs and many other good ones) and though no one would confuse them with RUSH, the musicianship is improved as well.
Starting with the ominously titled but fun and bouncy sounding “Walking Alone at Night” (a dichotomy which runs throughout this entire record), we get the super catchy “I Have No Fun” followed by “Can’t Get Over You”, two of the record’s best songs. Other highlights include “The End,” “Out for the Sun” (which is almost 4 minutes long, epic length for this band, and features some instrumental jamming which seems a bit WIPERS-inspired to these ears) and the closer “Double Vision” (no, not the FOREIGNER song).
This should be obvious to you readers by this point, but I’ll go ahead and state that I’ve been listening to it almost non-stop since I first heard it and that I’ll definitely be on my Top 10 list at the end of the year. Vivian Girls have upped the ante with their sophomore album. Let’s hope they keep on improving.
