Church Girls: Home

By Jacqueline Sun

Home is the third album from Church Girls, a female-fronted, self-described indie post-punk band from Philadelphia. The “post-punk” descriptor is somewhat misleading for Home because the punk influence is minimal at best. Rather, Home is a neo-soul, slightly bluesy rock album, reminiscent of early Maroon 5. The whole album sounds fairly uniform, but thankfully it’s a uniformly pleasant and easy-to-listen-to sound.

Home is a clean, guitar-driven album. This is apparent from the opening track, “Just Like You,” which features a propulsive and catchy guitar line. Vocalist Mariel Beaumont sings clearly, her voice floating high above the instrumentals. “Dead Wood” is the highlight of the album, with a bouncy bass line and a noisy instrumental break at the end. Things slow down with the following track “Old Friend.” The guitar riffs sound more country than anything, with soulful and meaningful lyrics. The closer “Home,” is a satisfying, uptempo finish with an anthemic chorus and tight guitar lines. It’s extremely danceable and ends the album on a positive note.

Overall, there isn’t a weak track on Home, but it’s also important to note that the album contains only five tracks, all under four minutes. I wish there was more, because Home is a promising start to an album, not an entire album. There’s more to be fleshed out, as it’s hard to ascribe or derive much meaning from an album so short. It’s hard to convey a full story or even get absorbed into an album when there’s 15 minutes to do so. Nonetheless, Home makes good use of its time and rocks out, however briefly.

Rating: 6.5/10

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