“Hey guys, let’s call our band ‘Girls.’ Get it? It’s funny. Cuz were all dudes.”
“Bros, you know what would be really funny? If we named our Album ‘Album.’ Get it? It’s funny. Cuz it’s an album.”
I’m convinced that Girls front man Christopher Owens–former member of the Children of God cult–said both of those phrases at some point. I can just hear him doing it, in his low, laid back voice. Or maybe I’m just kind of mad that I have to write about an album called Album, guaranteeing that this report will become bumbling and awkward…at least more so than usual. Even worse, I actually kind of like this album called Album, so I can’t even have the pleasure of tearing a thing with such a stupid name apart.
I guess the name of the band does kind of work; all of the songs on Album are actually about girls.
So I got the impression that Owens has had some girl problems in his life. Fairly depressing lyrics abound, sometimes thrown over happy instrumentation, but usually left for slower, sad-sounding guitars. Just check out Headache, where he sings “I only wanna be with you, all the time” over and over again. It’s the way he sings it though, as if he’s more desperate for that than anything. I think we’ve all been there, which makes that song, as well as the whole album-Album-really relatable.
My favorite song on the record, Summertime, takes a concept that’s fairly hard to make sad…well…sad. It’s not even that the lyrics are particularly depressing either. Once again, it’s Owen’s delivery, and his clear, depressing, desperation. “Summertime, soak up the sunshine…with you.”
Swole Ear 
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