3/10?  Wow, I’m at a loss for words.

“The San Francisco duo mostly resurrects their standard San Francisco surf rock”?  Really? I’ll give you “Honey Bunny” but nothing beyond that. What surf rock are you listening to? Also, “they admit to writing the album while under the influence of just about everything”? Everything? Really? I’d love to see citations on this. This is lazy, contrarian writing that makes UTR look BAD.

Agree with this review entirely. Thank god someone has the balls to hate on Girls. Album was good. This is not.

I read in an interview that Chris only writes songs under the influence of opiates and downers because it helps him focus on one thing. http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/8669-girls/

I personally loved Father. It’s definitely different from Album and it does clearly draw influence from a lot of other artists, but it’s still Girls and it’s good.

Finally, someone calling out this album for what it really is: A total snoozefest. Thank you UtR.

@Mark - See this interview: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jul/17/tim-jonze-interview-girls

I came to Under The Radar hoping to find a review that would enhance my listening experience - give me a take on the album which was different, even educational. But this review…seemed like someone said, “here’s the new Girls album. Critics are gonna love it, so let’s be sure we’re the one magazine that doesn’t.” That’s not how you build credibility. It seems petty. I love the album, by the way. But that’s not why I dislike this review, which makes no mention of its sonic qualities. Ahhh, eat it!

@Puppy’s Love Exactly. High-five.

I feel like any music journalist that reviews an album and gives it such a low rating, should at least explain why.  If they had recieved 10/10, I would still expect some kind of description of the album, and what made it so good.
  I don’t think that simply saying it “limps around with no real soul” and is unoriginal is sufficient.

Knee-jerk anti-Pitchfork contrarian is all.  Hey it generated lots of hits dinnit?  One of the 10 best albums of the year.

The problem with Under the Radar is that they only effectively review music that exists in a very small subset of music as a whole.  If there is experimentation with song structure of any kind it seems that UTR will inevitably dismiss it.  For anything other than straight-forward, acoustically driven indie music the reviews in this magazine cannot be trusted.

I’m not expecting everyone to love it, but how can you generalize such a diverse album?  I’d be impressed to hear these striking and vulnerable lyrics on any American Apparel ad, or to hear th deft and fluid transitions of “Die” on a Wolfmother CD.  The beauty of “Father, Son, Holy Ghost” is the seeming effortlessness with which Owens transcends genres and tempos.  Self-awareness is hardly a cage, but a tool and expression equally as potent as the carefree “F the world” attitude of bands like Wavves.

“. . . the hazy Sonic Youth vibe of Album’s “Hellhole Ratrace.”

I could pick apart this shallow review line by nonsensical line (mainstays of the American Apparel ad school of music? break out of their cage of self-awareness? limping along with no real soul?) but this really just sums the ‘I am not actually interested in music as sound so much as image’ vibe of this review up because seriously, how the FUCK does Hellhole Ratrace have a Sonic Youth vibe?

I don’t really get the Sonic Youth comparison either, but I’m really glad to see that at least one publication went out on a limb and called this record out for being lazy and mediocre.

No one will be listening to this album in 3 month time. Mark it.

@Matthew Perpetua This coming from a guy who champions Lady Gaga. Fuck off.

It’s a gorgeous, moving album. What’s this gist of the criticism here? (1) That the record is derivative, a charge that (as Chris Owens correctly points out) can be lodged at everyone from The Beatles forward, and (2) that it’s too “sad”? It’s precisely that melancholy, that ache, that connects with a lot of us about Girls, and there is plenty that’s hopeful about the songs as well. Owens doesn’t wallow in misery, and while one man’s “limp” is another’s “soul”, chalk me up in the soul column. I have not drank any Kool-Aid, but I know a special record when I hear one.
All that said, I highly doubt UtR commissioned a negative review simply to gratuitously be different, I most certainly don’t think “Father, Son…” will be forgotten in three months, and one 3/10 review aside, Girls will be just fine. Beyond fine.

I give this review one star- hilariously bad.

The first paragraph makes it seem like she a bigger problem with their fashion more than their music.

The Sonic Youth/Hellhole Ratrace graf just makes it apparent that it’s amateur hour.

Perhaps metacritic should re-think its criteria for who counts. This is petty blog hate stuff. It’s high school newspaper-level music criticism.

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Fuck you jessica you cunt