Ok, you’ve probably never heard of Girls, but gosh-darnit you should have! Whilst their debut album (simply called Album) was a tantalising teaser with a DIY aesthetic that would make The Strokes blush, EP Broken Dreams Club and follow-up album Father, Son, Holy Ghost were superb pieces of work.
But, like all things in life, it had to end, or rather, lead-singer and guitarist Christopher Owens upped sticks and left the band due to the ever revolving line-up, amongst other things.
Thankfully, less than a year after the break up; Owens’ returns with his debut album; a soundtrack based on the exploits of the first Girls’ tour and Owens’ brief relationship with a French waitress.
For those who enjoyed Girls’ previous sounds, the album is along the same lines. It’s a tad more folky, understandably more stripped back but it still familiar enough to be put amongst Owens’ previous two “band albums”.
The biggest noticeable difference between Lysandre and all of Girls’ releases is, like mentioned before; Lysandre is a faux-soundtrack. It opens with Lysandre’s Theme; a short piece that is thrown at the end of every song in the first half of the album and occasionally pops-up later.
Each subsequent track flows into one another with surprising success. Here We Go is by far the rockiest song on the album and the closest Owens’ sounds in recapturing the glory days of old.
Although the album could easily be Girls’ third album; there’s more saxophone and stereotypically, jazz influence; benefiting the otherwise generic New York City but making a far bigger impact on Riviera Rock (which also makes heavy usage of Lysandre’s Theme). It’s the track that stands out the most and makes the most welcome departure from everything else on the album.
Whilst the first half of the album is quite similar to Girls and makes no real effort to depart from the sound of old; Riviera Rock onwards is more fixated on heartbreak and Owens’ own qualms with his relationships (Lysandre) to whether he’s a decent musician (Love is in the Ear of the Beholder) to the back drop of shorter, acoustic based ballads.
Ironically, it is Love is in the Ear of the Beholder that sums up Lysandre in a nutshell. It’s quite obvious Owens’ is a talented musician and his music is more than simple rehashes from fifties to seventies pop-rock.
The problem is, the album isn’t a radical departure, and instead the lyrical themes and music has been done before, and done better. Whilst it has its moments, the album doesn’t really change the landscape of Owens’ contemporaries and stays relatively safe throughout.
The inclusion of Lysandre’s Theme at the end of nearly all of the songs doesn’t help matters as songs simply don’t stand out on their own, instead, it causes the tracks to loose their identity, but maybe that was the point in making a faux-soundtrack.
Fans of Girls will no doubt find something to enjoy on Lysandre and for those interested in a relatively short but sweet folk album with the occasional bit of electric guitar and seventies’ jazz; you could do far worse.
It’s a just a shame that Owens has proven before, he can do far, far better.
6/10
H
Although the album could easily be Girls’ third album; there’s more saxophone and stereotypically, jazz influence; benefiting the otherwise generic New York City but making a far bigger impact on Riviera Rock (which also makes heavy usage of Lysandre’s Theme). It’s the track that stands out the most and makes the most welcome departure from everything else on the album.
Whilst the first half of the album is quite similar to Girls and makes no real effort to depart from the sound of old; Riviera Rock onwards is more fixated on heartbreak and Owens’ own qualms with his relationships (Lysandre) to whether he’s a decent musician (Love is in the Ear of the Beholder) to the back drop of shorter, acoustic based ballads.
Ironically, it is Love is in the Ear of the Beholder that sums up Lysandre in a nutshell. It’s quite obvious Owens’ is a talented musician and his music is more than simple rehashes from fifties to seventies pop-rock.
The problem is, the album isn’t a radical departure, and instead the lyrical themes and music has been done before, and done better. Whilst it has its moments, the album doesn’t really change the landscape of Owens’ contemporaries and stays relatively safe throughout.
The inclusion of Lysandre’s Theme at the end of nearly all of the songs doesn’t help matters as songs simply don’t stand out on their own, instead, it causes the tracks to loose their identity, but maybe that was the point in making a faux-soundtrack.
Fans of Girls will no doubt find something to enjoy on Lysandre and for those interested in a relatively short but sweet folk album with the occasional bit of electric guitar and seventies’ jazz; you could do far worse.
It’s a just a shame that Owens has proven before, he can do far, far better.
6/10
H
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