I was hesitant to throw this on, because A.) I haven’t had a cassette player since I stopped driving a Toyota Paseo in 2005, and B.) The cover art made me think this was gonna be some kind of sleazy trash rock, which is a genre I usually just find irritating and bereft of ideas. Thanks to an included download card I was actually able to give this a listen, and I’m glad I did. My first thought upon listening was, “Wow, this sounds a lot like a lower budget version of the last Clorox Girls album.” I was disappointed with J’aime le Filles at first, since I was expecting it to be more like the first two Clorox Girls LPs, but once I realized that I should look towards the record more as a full-on power pop album rather than a fifteen-minute punk album, I realized it was great. Once I looked up the band, I realized it was composed of lead Clorox Girl and Ex-Red Don Justin Maurer, one-time Clorox Girl and Red Don Daniel Husayn, Chris from another one of my favorites, The Briefs, and James Sullivan of the Ripchords, who I admit I have never heard. So, basically, this is eight tracks of no frills, garagey, power pop greatness. “17 Television” is the greatest dark pop song the Adverts never did. “Change Your Mind” could easily fit between Buddy Holly and the Sonics in someone’s DJ set and the cover of the Crystal’s “Then He Kissed Me” is quite sublime. Really there is no daft tracks among the eight songs here, so check these guys out if you can luck into the original singles or one of the two hundred cassettes made up.
–Adrian (Ggnzla)