Golden Grrrls – Golden Grrrls

By Richard Wink

February 25, 2013

Whenever I listen to a band like Golden Grrrls I’m moved by this sound, a familiar art-school indie pop racket that echoes up and down the country in small broken down venues. This sound almost exists carelessly, without ambition, and a desire to break free in the wandering whispering winds. If you were to suggest a song that best represents this sound then you’d say ‘Son of a Gun’ by The Vaselines. Reinterpreted over and over, the song almost remains the same no matter what band plays it. The same sound, safe and familiar.

You can use words like sugary, summery, and saccharine, but I’m taken back to sticky beer stained floors, where a band, kitted out like charity shop mannequins, is playing in the background, and I’m not really paying attention because the music doesn’t demand that I do. It’s ramshackle, and though the harmonies seem nice, the words are muffled. Occasionally I’ll look over to the stage and my head will nod, as I fall out of the spiced rum spell and the sound warms the doldrums that had been dangling from the ventricles in my curmudgeonly fickle heart.

Golden Grrrls write short sharp songs, that are busy and bustling, and there are moments when they almost make you fall in love with them. ‘Paul Simon’ and ‘Wrld Peace’ are jubilant little ditties that burrow into your brain bank. You’ll likely be humming them as you wipe away the sausage roll crumbs that have stuck to your beard on the way back from a curtailed lunch break. But like any cheap high street bakery snack the morsels won’t make do and you’re still salivating, searching for something more than that sound. Here we go again …

What irks me somewhat is that there isn’t enough here to make you believe in the Golden Grrrls, the little band that could, because it just seems like they can’t and never will until they smooth the edges a little and add a little definition and character. Maybe more time needed to be spent on crafting the songs. Some adorable ruffians can get away with throwing something together and running on elevated oxytocin levels alone. Golden Grrrls still play like yet another pink wafer indie pop band in the already crowded dented biscuit tin.

When you listen to a new band, you may be familiar with the influences, but you want to hear something different. The trio – Ruari, Eilidh and Lorna seem like they are having fun, and that’s great for them. Fun is all well is good when you’re inside, but it isn’t always obvious to those who are looking in through the window.

Golden Grrrls is out on February, 25 and available from amazon and iTunes.