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Music Review: Golden Grrrls

Golden Grrrls engage pop culture without embarrassment. Their name is associated both with a sitcom (of the same name) and a third-wave feminist punk movement (Riot Grrrls). They don’t try to escape tropes of the indie genre: rather they embrace a DIY attitude that celebrates the joys of even derivative music.

Glasgow is often noted as the birthplace of indie pop, and Golden Grrrls don’t stray too far from the pop aesthetics established by decades of the city’s premiere musicians. The scene’s history can be traced back to Postcard Records, a less than prolific label that nevertheless heavily influenced many of the genre’s figureheads. Of these groups, Belle & Sebastian is the most well-known stateside, and Golden Grrrls’ upbeat melodies and relentlessly pleasant male and female vocals often sound like punk-inspired versions of Write About Love. Other critics have compared the noise pop trio to fellow Glasgow bands the Vaselines and the Pastels. The impact of these predecessors and contemporaries is obvious in their debut LP, and that’s not necessarily problematic. The band embraces their music scene, and Golden Grrrls serves more as an homage than as an inspired reinvention of Scottish pop.

Given the band’s name, it’s strange how far removed they are from the feminist political agenda of the Riot Grrrl movement. The choruses are repetitive and not particularly deep, and it often seems as if Golden Grrrls are using vocals merely as another layer of sound. The whole Grrrl movement is based on using language as weapon to rebel, and Golden Grrrls never utilize lyrics toward that purpose. Sometimes tracks sound like those of genuine Riot Grrrls—“Past Tense” is essentially a poppy Sleater-Kinney b-side—but they are stripped of all anti-patriarchal aggression.

In Loud and Quiet, an independent London-based music publication, Golden Grrrls guitarist Ruari MacLean was quoted as saying, “It’s just fun music,” and he’s right. Though it’s never quite unusual, the band plays up an entertaining happy-go-lucky vibe. The harmonies are often infectious and Eilidh Rodgers’ drumming drives each track at a notably energetic tempo. Listening to the album is very easy, and I find myself drawn to it even though I’m not totally sure it’s anything more than another cheap pop record. But I have the lingering feeling that the band is capable of producing the same lighthearted music with greater depth.

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