Unless you’ve lived under a rock the last couple years, you’ve noticed that the ’80s are back. Embracing this trend, Toronto-based Little Girls cites everything from ’80s no-wave, post-punk to early hip-hop as their influences. What began as Josh McIntyre’s solo project has developed into a bona-fide touring band, whose 11-track Concepts album was released Oct. 13. The concept behind Concepts? Growing up. How cute.
Yet while the idea might seem a bit cliché, their sound is anything but. Layered and gritty, Little Girls’ songs are deliberately imperfect, reflecting how everything on the album was recorded in a home studio and only at night. The theme of growing up is also directly accomplished by having the album include all of the band’s songs, from their very first to their latest recordings, thereby making it actually possible for the listener to hear the band mature into itself.
Despite their innocent-sounding name, Little Girls has some serious, darker undertones. Concept’s strengths are its later songs, such as “Thrills” and “Last Call,” where the band has been able to more effectively balance between its pounding beats, electric tones, and muffled vocals. When the album experiences growing pains itself, it is when it fails to achieve this equilibrium, creating a blurry dissonance of sound. In the end, though, Little Girls, whether deliberately or not, has somehow managed to capture one of the key elements of growing up (besides the adolescent angst): that feeling of potential.
[Image courtesy MBV music]
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