Baltimore's The Histrioniks second album 'About This Girl' sees them moving on from the largely acoustic sound of their first album 'Homesick From The Grave'. On this album there is more of a 'band' sound, sometimes utilizing surf guitars sounds, touches of cool psyche organ sounds and plenty of vocal harmonies too.
'Underneath' opens the album and is a fast paced, snappy number with good harmony vocals to top it all off. 'Whiskers A Go Go' with it's suggestive lyrics likening a boyfriend to a cat (I think!) has some cool fuzztone guitar figures running throughout the song and some bursts of tremolo guitar, giving the whole song a 'garagey' feel and it's all an enjoyable melodic romp through to the end. 'Fingers In The Rain' has lots of harmony vocals and a prominent bass figure throughout along with some tasteful piano which all come together to make this song one of the highlights of the album. 'Perpendicular' features prominent keyboards and adds another dimension to this song. The high echoey 'Farfisa' type organ sound making it take on slightly psychedelic slant, 'Dominque' is slowed paced and the closest to the bands sound on their first album. 'Gone' has flamenco guitar to add another texture to the fabric of the song.
More instrumentation has added more musical scope for interesting arrangements, which the band have made best use of to fill out their sound. Overall, 'About This Girl' is an album that marks a musical progression for the Histrioniks and shows that they are capable of growing and adapting musically which bodes well for the future.
Reviewed by Kevin Wallbank of M100 and Honeymoon On Mars 10/11/08
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