Still Life Still – Girls Come Too

“If you don’t mind my cum on your tits / then I don’t mind your blood on my dick”. That particular lyric seemed a fitting way to open the review of Canadian band Still Life Still’s debut album Girls Come Too. Having read that lyric (taken from song 'T-Shirts') combined with the album title, you can probably take a wild guess at the lyrical content of much of this album. Completely un-contained sexuality and mildly explicit imagery are pretty much the order of the day.Whilst Girls Come Too is not entirely perverted, there are certainly more sexual references than you can shake a stick at (ahem - Ed). It’s difficult to know if Still Life Still deliberately want to shock the listener, or this is actually constantly on their song writing minds, but sex has in this case provided a strong subject matter. The songs are generally well written, filled with the occasional “shocking” lyric that helps to keep the attention of the listener. Still Life Still were signed onto Kevin Drew’s wonderful label Arts and Crafts, who also produced the album. It is pleasing to believe that the lyrical influence is coming from Broken Social Scene, and Kevin Drew’s particular viewpoint, and they are not simply trying to shock the listener.The musical comparisons with Broken Social Scene are numerous and immediately notable, Girls Come Too has a certain orchestral, massive feel. Aggressive and fast paced yet melodic. Still Life Still use a pleasing amount of swirling noise, and rhythmic guitars in their seemingly ramshackle but well put together songs. Opening track Danse Cave is a good demonstration of their abilities. One is instantly reminded of the efforts of bands such as Modest Mouse, and of course Broken Social Scene. The particularly close comparisons to other bands do Still Life Still little favours in the originality stakes, the album sounds pretty much exactly similar to what has come before, and the presence of it’s (admittedly excellent) producer is perhaps too closely felt. It is however increasingly difficult for Indie-Rock bands to sound different, without completely breaking out of the Indie-Rock template (a move that is not always completely advisable). Since Still Life Still are so consistently enjoyable, it’d be wrong to hold these resemblances against them.If sexually laced lyrics are a gimmick designed to drag the attention of the listener in, to become hooked on the strength of the music contained within Girls Come Too they certainly work. Still Life Still will gather much attention because of their slightly perverted view point, and I must say they deserve it. Girls Come Too is not exceptional, but it is good. Rauchy lyrics aside, or included this is a highly competent debut album, from a talented group of youngsters and should not be ignored.Still Life Still on Myspace