I had mentally filed away the news about a new record, but I hadn’t much thought about Girls‘ Broken Dreams Club before reading this interview with Chet “JR” White several weeks ago. Amidst discussion of the new EP and the band’s recent tour, White expressed a familiar burnout with the repetitive churn of blogger commentary, and an exhaustion with the exorbitant touring since Album‘s release. Note for further investigation later: is the expedited modern hype/promo/touring cycle burning out our most promising artists? Or, perhaps, to narrow the question, would the exhaustion impact one of the Bay’s best young bands?
White’s interview wasn’t totally bleak, though, and he suggested a sense of creative renewal in the recording of Broken Dreams Club. That feeling was more effusively captured in the letter from Christopher Owens that announced the new record’s release. The handwritten note is so insanely positive that it’s difficult not to stay optimistic about Girls’ success in the future. Among its findings: the band has emerged from the touring grind with an audio “LETTER OF INTENT” for the group’s vision going forward, lemonade from lemons, if you will.
Still, if the meta-story of Broken Dreams Club is positive, the album’s six songs are the group’s most bittersweet yet. The band’s expanding in new directions musically — a horn section, pedal steel — while Owens’ lyrics feel even more melancholic. This is sad, beautiful music, and, if you’re into that sort of thing, very recommended.
Broken Dreams Club is available from the Matador store or on iTunes.
