The Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong

Having recorded their eponymous debut album in just three days, Vivian Girls really took their time over their follow-up effort. Everything Goes Wrong took a massive six days to complete. That’s almost a whole week.

Their keenness to expedite the studio process (many of the songs were recorded in a single take) means this Brooklyn trio’s sound is unsurprisingly lo-fi. It certainly has its foot in the punk music camp - the clatter of rudimentary guitar, bass and drums with occasionally inaudible lyrics - but punk is only one of the influences here. If it all seems a little inaccessible at first, after a few listens some really rather lovely ditties shine through the abrasive exterior. Can't Get Over You, for instance, has - buried within some Jesus and Mary Chain fuzziness and some cool surf-guitars - harmonies that point in the direction of the Phil Spector Motown girl groups. It sounds like The Ronnettes crashing their car into L7, in a good way.

The lyrics are always simple, often with the same few lines repeated over. Despite this, the themes of doomed love and yearning are clearly defined, and are summed up by shoegazey album-closer, Before I Start To Cry, which is a downbeat yet beautiful way to end the record, with vocalist-guitarist Cassie Ramone singing in a suitably flat tone: “Just turn around and say goodbye, before I start to cry.”

Ultimately, the fact that Everything Goes Wrong is so raw means that the essence of their live shows is successfully transferred onto CD, which is not an easy thing to achieve.