Friday, June 17, 2011

Album Review: Vivian Girls - Share The Joy



It really does blow when you forget about an album, then when you start listening to it you realise its the wrong season to be listening to this at all. This album by Vivian Girls is the perfect example of this, its got summer hits (Best Coast I'm looking at you) written all over it. This is the third album from the all female trio from Brooklyn New York titled Share The Joy and I guess with this blog I'm sharing the joy of this album with all of you.

With this being an all girl group you will immediately have similarities to bands such as Best Coast, Warpaint and Dum Dum Girls, being around before these bands you could say Vivian Girls helped pave the way (I doubt it, but whatever) Early in the album you definitely get an album that looks to be another summer classic much like last years Crazy For You by Best Coast. However what Best Coast lacked in musicianship is what Vivian Girls seems to have on them, the crisper alternative rock sound over the surf pop sound is where this band stands.

Of course the surf pop angle is used, even bits of conventional retro pop is included particularly in the track Take It As It Comes which I feel like would fit right into an 80's diner movie. As said this is more than a surf pop album and a song like Vanishing Of Time shows this off, the summer guitar tone is toned down and a much more serious (and slightly heartfelt) song is developed with indie/alternative ideals in place. One thing you definitely notice is the lyrics, again we have songs about love and I guess their dude, it seems to fit well in the surf pop songs so it's fine but nothing outrageous or overly interesting.

The only real flaw to this album is it's nothing really great, just a lot of nice songs put together to make a nice album, a lot of the songs sound similar and this isn't so much a of a problem but more that they aren't trying to push the envelope more. A song they do seem to show great potential in is Light In Your Eyes, a long track for them in just over 6 minutes, the song shows a cool alternative vibe with the sweet and soft vocals carrying into a nice song, my favourite even.

Overall this is a nice short album at only 36 minutes, what Vivian Girls have produced is a really cool, fun summer album that at times isn't so cliche. If you were a fan of Crazy For You by Best Coast you'll certainly dig this as I feel its got some cool similarities and at the end of the day you could relax in the sun listening to these song and soak it in and enjoy. Unfortunately this was written in the grim and frostbitten winter, but once summer comes round again, so will this album.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

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