The Wes Hollywood Show's second album, The Girls Are Never Ending, is a self-described "stab at pop genius." Whether or not the Chicago outfit succeeds rests on your definition of genius. If genius is the creation of something entirely new, the band has missed the mark a bit - while the album is certainly a solid, even interesting, blend of new wave and modern pop in a sort of Elvis Costello meets early Blur sound, it is an X meets X sound. If genius lies in the fusion of the old and new, in a resurrection of 1979 and 1994, then they're pretty damn close.
There's something irreverent about the album, the band itself really, a carefully crafted wit that comes off quite casually. The drama and sarcasm almost cancel each other out - which isn't necessarily a bad thing. On an initial quick listen, the album is showy and poppy, dredging up modernized references to everyone from Pablo Honey Radiohead to the Replacements. They're good time tunes, songs that would make an evening of beer and music a wholly enjoyable one.
On a second, or merely more careful listen, the cleverness, the witty wordplay, the irony, surfaces. The Girls Are Never Ending, as the band explains, pledges "devotion to the girls they'll never meet - or wished they never met." Tracks like album opener "She's Gonna Let You Go" gleefully sing about relationships that aren't so gleeful, singing "you never told me where I stood/and now you're gone for good...you can take me to the chemist/but that won't remove this unsightly blemish/don't you know I'll wear this scar with pride."
The poetry of tracks like "Weston-Super-Mare," that sings "sleep tight, goodbye/these sheets are filled with the verse/of disappointed lovers," is tempered with a poppiness that removes any emo-angst. Tracks full of disappointment don't disappoint or depress, oddly mirrored later in the song when Hollywood sings "somewhere in this city/there's a girl meant just for me."
The Wes Hollywood Show is Wes Hollywood, lead guitarist Mark Talent, drummer Jason Styx and bassist Patrick Thornbury.
Centerstage Will Feed You
