Girls - Album

Official album art, courtesy of Wikipedia

If the Beach Boys were forming a band today, I feel like this is the music that they would play. Girls captured the timeless California sound that we have all grown to love, but they put a unique twist to it, creating something that not too many bands have done, or even tried.

The obvious creativity of the band's name and the album's title sets up what is to be expected from its sound. Now, don't take this sarcasm as a bad thing--in reality, this is the essence of music. Album is, under any consideration, a catalog of a life in love; it says all the things we want to say, feels all the things we want to feel, and wades through the same problems we all face every day.

Every time I hear something new, I try to come up with a short, yet descriptive way to tell people what I am listening too. This is often not too easy, because everyone's perception of music is different. Regardless of all of that, Album features what I like to call "love-gone-wrong" songs. Everyone can name an endless list of love songs, break-up songs, or any such list involving strong emotions, but what is often overlooked is that strange feeling of no longer having something great--that disillusioned feeling you get when something has come to its end, and you have to move on, into a new area of your life which is not necessarily where you want to be. Well, this is exactly the feeling that Girls manages to capture so well.

I have had this album for a little while now--it is by no means new--and I have listened to it on the on-and-off basis, always liking the songs in a way, but never quite putting my finger on that feeling that is left over after the album is done, and I am just staring at the ceiling in silence. Well, I think I finally figured that out.

I know that some of you may say that I am cheating by using an older album, but I guess I am okay with that. Some unexpected personal things have occurred in my live recently, which have greatly depleted my free time (to both discover and write), and have also made me fairly happy, but that is a story for another time.

So, without any more blabbering on my part, here is a little preview of this great album, as well as something special at the end.