Last year; Christopher Owens proved he could survive beyond Girls' break-up with his debut album/faux soundtrack Lysandre, even if the album was a relative step down from Girls' previous near-faultless releases.
A year later sees Owens back, with new friends and a few old faces on an album that sees A New Testament a truer follow-up to Father, Son, Holy Ghost than Lysandre.
Unlike last year which saw the album flow together with few pauses and slightly different iterations of Lysandre's Theme at the end (or recreated for Riveria Rock); A New Testament is a more traditional album, with more of the gospel influence on Vomit taken to it's natural progression.
It starts off acoustic-cum-church organ sprinkled My Troubled Heart and doesn't really veer off that formula for the remainder of the album. At times, it works an absolute wonder, Overcoming Me in particular is the stand-out of the album; similar to Forgiveness but shorter and more focused.
Owens previously inflections with country blues emerges nearly from the word go with second track Nothing More Than Everything to Me; a relatively short and sweet love song or A Heart Akin the Wind; which sounds like a fifties hoedown.
Guitar riffs are more prevalent here and thankfully so. It Comes Back to You has a satisfying burst towards the end, again, in similar vein to Forgiveness, whilst Never Wanna See That Look Again, whilst short, has layers of nice riffs atop another, giving the song so much needed loudness.
Owens lyrics once again stick to the ever troublesome yet traditional subject of love; it's far more classy here than Girls' first album (also called Album), they're neither catchy nor too memorable, but Owens distinct vocals give the album some much needed character and personality and work well when the organ screeches out the higher keys.
In another case of déjá vu; if you were a fan of Girls and enjoyed Lysandre but hoped that album was even more of a spiritual successor to Father, Son, Holy Ghost, then there's bound to be something to like on A New Testament, almost certainly more than what was on Lysandre. It's not as cohesive as that record, but there's more depth here and ultimately; it serves as a much closer spiritual successor to Girls' canon.
If you're looking for a short and sweet rock 'n' folk album with, not so much a nod, but headbang to gospel music, then you could do far worse than A New Testament. It has it's highlights, but it's a tad too samey and a tad too safe to be a clear runner for one of the albums of the year, but it's more than worth half an hour of your time to check out.
7/10
H
@Retcon_Nation
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