Vivian Girls

iTunes Review

Brooklyn’s Vivian Girls take their cue from indie-pop-punk bands of years past (from shoegazers to reverb-drenched Phil Spector idolators), but on their short, sweet 10-track debut, they bury hooks — or something like them — in layers and leave it to the listener to coax them out into the open (the Girls share a certain primitivism with California’s No Age). With guitars and drums delivered in a steady and rather monotone style, they serve up a barrage of carefully controlled noise with glorious three-part girl harmonies topping it off like pink butter cream frosting (yum); but when a song ends, the yearned for hook is difficult to recall. Why, then, does “No” (that’s the entire lyric to song, repeated over and over) re-surface in your head hours after listening? The cyclical four notes of “Wild Eyes” flirt like a hook while you’re listening but dissipate when the song ends (like the best flirts do), and the shy, descending bass lines of  “Tell the World” resemble a hook enough to push the vintage sounding guitars straight into a reluctant spotlight: this track is killer.  In a rare moment of comparative quietude, “Where Do You Run To?” offers a sweet respite from the noise. Much like a morning after, Vivian Girls is short on details but conjures a blurred memory of a darn good time.