Jealous Girlfriends come from indie rock's current capital, Brooklyn, and have released a debut album with solid songwriting, two forceful lead singers, and plenty of hooks. And yet here I am, reviewing in August an album released in April (and self-released in 2007) to little fanfare anywhere save a handful of mp3 blogs. A few spins through the record, though, and the reason for the band's relative anonymity presents itself: they're taken for granted or simply missed altogether because they sound so familiar. Jealous Girlfriends make straightforward, moody, and melodic guitar rock, in a niche established by the more stylish New York guitar bands of the past five years. If Interpol, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Blonde Redhead, etc. formed a mini wave, then Jealous Girlfriends are what washed up on the shore a bit after the initial tide receded.
The current quartet, which has been kicking around since 2004, represent a tidy compendium of their predecessors' slick, dense production, howling vocals, and dark subject matter. The Girlfriends' vocal duties are split between Holly Miranda, blessed with a Karen O/Katrina Ford wail, and Josh Abbott, whose macho howl most closely resembles Billy McCarthy, lead singer of Brooklyn's Pela. They harmonize well-- dig the sweeping "I Quit"-- and Abbott gets center stage on a few numbers, but Miranda is the main attraction here, able to command the spotlight on the woozy, hopeful album-opener "Secret Identity" as well as the (unfortunately-titled) highlight "Roboxulla", a wistful and narcotic piano-driven ditty straight from the Concretes' 2004 playbook. Abbott beefs things up a bit on the blustery "How Now" then airs it out again with the electronic flourishes of "The Pink Wig to My Salieri", which ends with a majestic synth/guitar/"na na na"earworm that takes a while to dislodge. At their best, the Girlfriends suggest they've got the ability to crank much more of this stuff out in the future.
They've certainly got the chops to move beyond their influences, but the Girlfriends' combination of vibe-- musical as well as lyrical, as their gently bitter name would suggest-- and sticky hooks gets a bit predictable and sameish as it plays. The record's core signposts might be a few years past their sell-by date, but their familiarity has led to one sort of notice: Savvy television viewers will recognize more than a quarter of the record from spots on a few popular shows: "Lay Around" appeared on Showtime's "The L Word", "Something in the Water" and "Roboxulla" on "Grey's Anatomy", and "Carry Me" could be heard on "CSI: Miami". This must be some sort of record, but it's also evidence that the Jealous Girlfriends are nothing if not pros, who know how to absorb and reshape their surroundings into tunes which, when they catch you just right, sound perfectly comfortable.
