EP REVIEW: Over My Dead Body – girlfriends

Pop-punk duo GIRLFRIENDS have had more than a few comparisons made to MACHINE GUN KELLY and, with even a cursory listen to their latest EP Over My Dead Body it’s easy to hear why. The two-piece bonded over a love of the genre and hooks and in the last three years alone have already churned out two full-lengths and toured with the aforementioned MGK as well as other pop alternative acts from MOD SUN to TWENTY ONE PILOTS. All of this is to give a firm idea of where their sound grounds itself; it’s pop-punk, certainly, but the slickly produced, radio-friendly modern wave rather than its scrappier origins or easycore leanings. 

Opener Life’s A Brittany is easy enough on the ears, the sugary high-pitched vocals that became a hallmark of the genre front and centre. Lyrically it’s not going to win any prizes (“Life’s a bitch, her name is Brittany”, “They said not to talk to strangers / But I keep running into danger”) but to deny the duo know their way around a catchy hook would be an egregious lie. It’s an easy saccharine earworm that doesn’t reinvent any wheels with its caffeinated pop-punk but one that’s helped win them a lot of fans in a short time. 

Following it with Over My Dead Body, the band pair the lightly autotuned vocals with a melody that owes more than a little to AVRIL LAVIGNE’s early 2000s output. The guitars aren’t remotely heavy, unlike their other obvious influences in NEW FOUND GLORY, rather they’re a backdrop to the vocal melodies that are placed front and centre. Talk again hankers for radio play, leaning further into the pop direction that saturates the EP. Plastic channels those MGK influences a little too much, though when you consider it was produced by Andrew Goldstein who also worked with the controversial rapper-cum-pop-punk star, it makes total sense. Closing the EP with Thanks Anyway that does the as-yet unheard and breaks the three-minute barrier, it’s got the obligatory acoustic intro they already used on Life’s A Brittany; it, frankly, sounds exactly like the other four songs on the EP. 

But really, that’s exactly what GIRLFRIENDS have built themselves on; easy listening, radio-friendly pop-punk that leans into that sugary pop high of MGK and MOD SUN, relying on vague epithets for lyrics that cast so wide a net it’s impossible to derive any particular meaning from them besides the vague sense of rebellion or annoyance at being wronged. There’s not a shred of originality to be found, but what there is are easy, extremely catchy melodies that are purpose-built for arenas of screaming, adoring fans. And that’s okay. 

Rating: 6/10

Over My Dead Body is set for release on May 12th via Big Noise.

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