Vivian Girls – Everything Goes Wrong
Vivian Girls
This album is a lot like a pizza (bear with me here). As a whole, it’s a deliciously enticing prospect but the problem with pizza is that every slice is pretty much the same as the one before and after your sixth, you either get bored or start to feel sick from the carb and salt overload. A typical Vivian Girls serving is topped with generous helpings of echo and reverb, all played at a piping hot 100 miles per hour, great in small portions but sickly as a whole.
Strained similes aside, there is actually much to like about what makes up Everything Goes Wrong. The music is absolutely no frills; guitar, bass and drums played to a fairly limited range of melody and style but played with real rock’n'roll carefree abandon. The album has a live feel to it, attempting to capture what I imagine is a fantastic concert spectacle, though this is offset somewhat through the effects laden vocals which are always dreamy, and multi layered.
It’s tough to pick highlights or indeed lowlights as the tracks are so alike and interchangeable. It’s the kind of album where a friend might say to you, “I love ‘The Desert’” and you’ll reply “Which one’s that?” with their subsequent description of the track leading to further confusion. ‘Tension’ and final track ‘Before I Start to Cry’ just about make themselves noticeable as they’re played at a lesser tempo but still, the melody is not diverse enough from other offerings.
If someone were to stick a track from this album onto a mix CD, the recipient would likely be totally intrigued by the Vivian Girls’ old school, indie rock murk and would no doubt be enticed to seek out more of their work. But it’s in this format, the teasing glimpse, that the band’s music works best. In a long player format, it’s just too raucous, too samey and ultimately the initial charm wears off and boredom creeps in.
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