Album by Girls
by Lana Fleischli
We’ve all heard of “Victoria” and “Lola,” who the Kinks sang about. We’ve heard of “Delilah” who lives in New York City. There’s “Ophelia,” and there’s even “Stacy’s Mom!” But now, for those of you who don't know, there’s “Lauren Marie” A.K.A “Laura.”
The band Girls’ first album, called Album, came out in 2009. I remember this well, because my dad used to play the song “Laura” for me all of the time when I was around 5 years old. I had forgotten about “Laura” until recently. When I listened to it again for the first time, I teared up. This past week, I listened to Album all the way through for the first time.
The analysis of the album is pretty straightforward. It’s about love and loss. The actual music itself is incredibly complex because the lyrics were written by Christopher Owens and produced by Chet “JR” White. They play with the idea of pop music, making it relatable, yet somehow making it deeper with the composition.
I spoke to my friend, Juanita Garcia, who is friends with their hired drummer, Garrett Goddard. She explained how the album really fit the time. Both Christopher Owens and JR White lived in San Francisco. She described that it was just poppy enough where people knew it and would sing along when it played. When talking about the song, “Lust For Life,” she described that it “Feels like a pop song…[it was] Such an ‘up’ song that everyone could relate to.”
The relatability comes from how straightforward the meaning is. Christopher Owens’ lyrics put the listener in his state of mind. You feel what he feels.
Juanita said Owens talks about meeting someone and running around the city, just being free, which is an experience that she says most young people have had at some point.
The main thing that got me about this album is the brutal honesty. Owens doesn’t avoid calling out Lauren Marie, which is something I have rarely seen. Most artists tend to not share the identity of who they are referring to. That was not the case for Owens. In fact, she is in the music video for “Laura.” Apparently, by the time the album came out, they were friends, and she was happy to be in the music video for the song about her.
When I asked Juanita about it, she said that it made Laura the San Francisco “It Girl” at the time. At first I thought that it was like she was his Edie Sedgwick, just like any muse, except that in the song “Laura,” he calls her a “bitch,” which doesn’t paint her as the perfect muse. The whole idea of her being a muse even after explaining her flaws is actually really cool. Perhaps that’s what makes her so cool. It’s the idea that a muse, someone undeniably perfect, is too simple. Laura isn’t perfect, and is still the inspiration for the album. Also, the fact that he wrote the whole album about her in the first place shows that no matter what, she must have been pretty inspirational, but not an unrealistic muse.
This album transported me to a state of mind. It’s somewhat idyllic, and somewhat sad. It’s a bold piece of art that is painfully truthful and can sting in just the right place.