The Weekly Coos

Since their debut of the more melancholy, lo-fi-driven Earl Grey, Girl Ray has elevated their sound to bring more than straightforward pop textures, incorporating influence from some of the seismic pop music of the 2010s, like “Take Care” by Drake featuring Rihanna, an example used in the Apple Music Bio. With Girl, it felt refreshing, and its unique shifts into hip-hop flows caught me off-guard; it doesn’t reflect on Prestige, their latest album, which teeters more between the two styles. It carries a wavelength that stagnates, like an EKG testing a heartbeat as you hear them waver through indie pop-rock complexions and electronica, sometimes extending beyond and growing with these intricate house overtures enhancing potent bass grooves and guitar rifts, elevating the occasional streamlined writing and performances that may otherwise lessen with some of its performances and writing that tread familiar territory lyrically. It’s bridging connectivity with these solid productions that reflect more House and Disco influences, and it levies much of the responsibility on the vocal performances, which cosplay more than they fit naturally. That isn’t to say Prestige falters consistently, but it doesn’t do enough to engage fully with its influences.

Girl Ray is trying to do something special here, something far different than the lo-fi identity of their debut or the more colorful and vibrant Girl – Prestige sees Girl Ray seemingly grow and lose some identity. It sounds more like Girl Ray is trying to find footing within trendy genres instead of allowing these influences or styles to find purpose within their strengths. Sometimes it clicks, but other times it sounds derivative of different, used sounds, like with “Up,” where the opening strings remind me much of STRFKR’s “While I’m Alive,” which carries its own identity within synth-pop rock music, but “Up” just changes the tone and tempo from something more moody and melancholy to something more fundamentally pop-rock and drab. It left me feeling empty as if they have something more to give; that sentiment holds with some songs – usually, from the vocal performances to the instrumental layering, many tracks never find a proper identity from beginning to end. Yet, some highlights have traction, specifically through the humdrum standardized moments reflected in the songwriting, like how they seem to forget there is more than love as a defining theme to coat the album.

It isn’t until “Begging You Now” that Girl Ray tries a different approach. Here, they speak within the moment, which has more to do than mostly physical connections that are getting sung about – this includes the one-sided humdrum where they are fighting the doubt getting imparted because this person isn’t as trustworthy to be loved – as said through the song’s chorus “Everybody’s saying that you could’ve done better/But I really wanna end up with you/Sparkle in your eye, glitter in the night.” It’s not to say that before, there are songs that slightly hit the nail, like “Love Is Enough,” which sees Girl Ray grounding the central theme of love, where it doesn’t overwhelm the senses and keeps the listener level-headed. It reminds me how much I enjoyed 2019’s Girl for how much it tried to do different things vocally, like some rap-like flows. It’s when you get to the second half of Prestige where the music gets to the level of many from the last album, but it remains much of an afterthought. It becomes more confusing when the production matches the quality of the writing, leaving you more like this became a missed opportunity.

As is with their music, its strength comes from the vocal performances, which have a consistent quality here, but as it tries to push itself to be something slightly different, it doesn’t go far into its bag to feel refined and new. Frankly, some performances become mere afterthoughts when the production doesn’t do similarly to elevate the performance. There are some quality performances, but when you get some of the slightly one-dimensional writing, there is just so much emotional potency that can push, like on “Love Is Enough,” where it’s sobering and fun, but its writing is direct and lacking flavor. You almost have to watch the music video to get any form of true creativity, save for some brief moments of minimalist instrumentations in the beginning, but before the bridge. The production tries to help buoy the performances and writing, where one can easily bypass the modestly decent songwriting, where you feel the applicability and enjoy that connectivity. Unfortunately, the teetering in styles, whether its more lavish or subdued, but only so much that can help bolster the album further.

Unlike Girl, Girl Ray switches up the tempo from something more vibrant and profound, and instead of reworking with Ash Workman, known for his work with Christine & The Queens, instead bringing producers that have more of a foundational presence in Synth-Pop and Electronica. Here, they brought in two members of UK Electronic Band Hot Chip and Ben H. Allen III, known for his work with Animal Collective and Engineering, the lavish mastering of the Gnarls Barkley song “Crazy.” They don’t do much to help amplify the instrumentations – more so in the first half of Prestige than in the second, wherein Girl Ray brings a semblance of originality with a more lowly lo-fi presence of songs like “Wanna Dance” and “Space Song,” or the delightful electronic fortitude of the closing track “Give Your Love.” The former two maneuver through such minimalism that you sense where Ben H. Allen III helped co-produce remarkable touches of them with Poppy Hankin, one of Girl Ray’s multi-instrumentalists. Unlike them, the closing song brings an excellent balance of pop and house sounds to elevate that lo-fi foundation by keeping much of its influence in the synths, which slightly embody the tones of Deep House with unique, enigmatic drums steering the captivating connectivity between them, especially the bass grooves once the beat drops.

I really wanted to like Prestige, but there was only so much going for it that it left me cold, yearning for more of that flair heard on the previous album. It was fun and filled with unique sonic choices that hit the nail on the coffin. I’d recommend it only to see the delineating differences and more. But other than that, you can skip this Girl Ray album this time. I sort of wish I did, but if I did and it was great, I would have missed out, but that isn’t the case, and instead, find me looping 2019’s Girl more frequently.