Girls Against Boys - House of GvsB

After the interview I had with singer/guitarist Scott McCloud, I took the time to listen to the new album by Girls Against Boys. It was four o'clock at night and maybe that's the best time of the day to listen to a record by this band.

House of GvsB is a typical Girls Against Boys album. The heavy double bass attack is still there, the pounding drums are being played as only Alexis Fleisig can play them, and Scott McCloud still groans, moans and and whispers his lyrics, as if he's having intercouse. The intercourse he has is with his guitar and he makes it howl, gnarl and scream with feed back.

Super Fire starts off furiously with a distorted guitar and the double basses pounding. When the keyboards join in and Eli Janney is doing his backups, this song starts to sound like one of their best album Venus Luxure No.1. Click Click cranks up the tempo: the guitar is more like a third bass here, and the song is again perfect for a sweety night...

And we could continue drooling over each song here. Crash 17 (X-Rated Car) is again a song that could have come from Venus Luxure No.1. This is a crazy vertigo of rhythms! Disco Six Six Six again has those very innocent-sounding keyboards, with McCloud hammering like a madman on his guitar, meanwhile still singing with that sing-song voice. On Life in Pink, the wah-wah is very much present on a background of lazy noises.

Totally different is TheKindaMzkYouLike. The rhythms here could be those of a rap-song. This is probably the fiercest song and could very well have been on Cruise Yourself. Vera Cruz, on the other hand, releases the accelerator and sounds like it was recorded with a drumcomputer. It reminds me a lot of their first release 90's vs 80's. Once again, there's Eli Janney on the background singing like an innocent angel.

From then onwards the best songs of the album are over, but we still hear some very nice things, such as the breaks in AnotherDroneInMyHead, the very catchy melodies in Cash Machine, the new wave like rhythms in Wilmington or the heavenly church-like keyboards in Zodiac Love Team.

Boys Against Girls have just released their last album on the Touch And Go label, but it has become a very nice goodbye gift. The album is better than its predecessor Cruise Yourself. The sound is also better and not so heavy than on the last album. If the band will make records like this for their new label Geffen, I predict that they will head for a great career.