Dear Julie Doiron fanatics: in Julie Doiron's newly reissued 1996 debut Broken Girl, which combines her first-ever solo tracks from seven-inches and limited edition releases, you shall uncover a trove of early 90s, mostly acoustic, lo-fi dream-pop in the vein of Eric's Trip, but far sweeter, and far smooshier.
Dear the rest of you: you will uncover a cache of lilting songs which resonate in their earnestness, but not much else, since you've heard approximately 3,298 musicians toting similar aesthetics to fanzine conventions across America since 1995-- starting and ending with The Softies. A germinate of Doiron's now-honeyed, loping alto is apparent on certain tracks, such as "So Low", but for the most part she was dotting her I's with little hearts and breathily overemphasizing the vowels, as every pop band was wont to do between 1993 and 1995. Hey, Twee Kitten, you're living all over me.
Broken Girl is an odd release. Stylistically, it doesn't exactly stand the test of time: the material is nice enough, but it's lacking in profundity, or really anything beyond nicety. On "Sorry Story", Julie Doiron sings about unrequited love; on "Five" Julie Doiron plugs in the guitar and sings about being double-timed; on "August 10", Julie Doiron sings about messing up her relationship and apologizing about it. Julie, we are totally feeling you.
For a woman whose latter-day catalogue is so much richer, prettier, and more intimate-- especially her excellent 1999 release with the Wooden Stars, Will You Still Love Me, which burned with an urgency still unseen in her other releases-- Broken Girl just seems like pangs of unwarranted nostalgia. Sure, you could say she had a hand in defining said acoustic twee-pop sound-- which she did, at least as much as the K Records battalion-- but only if the twee-pop sound had actually been broad-scoped and impacting enough to still matter all that much. It's sort of fun to listen to Broken Girl and be all, "Wow, back then hardly anyone had the internet or ProTools and I spent all my money mail-ordering from Cher Doll Records" or some shit, but unless you're a completist, get Will You Still Love Me instead. Julie Doiron fanatics, go to town. The rest of you, as you were.
