By John Faussemagne
In 2009, The debut album from Indie rock band Girls, titled Album was released to critical acclaim. Beloved by the basement dwellers at Pitchfork who gave it a 9.1/10, and praised by countless other publications, Girls became a household name in the independent rock community rather quickly. While they didn’t become a mainstream success overnight, Girls had a unique take on indie combining everything from surfer rock to psychedelic, with a singer who sounded like a nasally Elvis Costello. That singer was Christopher Owens, the lead in the two-piece band alongside JR White. With quick success, Girls proved they had staying power with a beloved EP the following year titled Broken Dreams Club, and an even more beloved follow-up album in 2011 Father, Son, Holy Ghost. The latter debuted at 37 on the Billboard 200 as well as receiving even more critical acclaim than their break-out album. Then… Silence.
In 2012 the band broke up. Christopher Owens released a series of tweets detailing the band had ended and that he had plans for solo music, later citing issues surrounding the constantly changing touring band as a main reason. But, not everyone can be like Peter Gabriel after he left Genesis to start a wildly successful solo career. Owens started releasing solo music to little to no acclaim, with each album failing to live up to the music he once released as a part of Girls. Then, in 2015 after a third solo album failed to gain traction, he disappeared. The next nine years that would separate his third and fourth solo albums can only be described as hell. Owens would suffer a major motorcycle crash leaving him bedridden for a time. His longtime fiance called off their wedding after the accident. He had to pick up work as a barista to stay alive, before being fired leaving him homeless. Then, he lost his best friend. On October 18, 2020, Chet White, Owens’ former Girls bandmate passed away. Owens truly hit rock bottom, but that meant there was nowhere else to go but up.
In 2024, Christopher Owens released I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair. Shown on the cover, Owens appears to be posing like a model, unsurprisingly as he had modeled for the likes of Saint Laurent earlier in his career. The first of ten songs “No Good” starts with a dreamy guitar playing before Owens, with a now noticeably deeper voice than earlier in his career starts to sing. “No, not another love song / Not one more song where I’m pretending everything will be okay.” Owens sets the tone for this album quickly, showing he isn’t afraid to be open about what life has put him through. A slight stringy build-up occurs before the drum and psychedelic guitar-driven chorus raises the tempo, and energy of the song quickly, which continues until the song’s ending. The chorus is incredibly memorable each time it plays, so much so it has become one of my favorite releases from 2024. The second chorus is succeeded by an incredible guitar solo. The opener starts the album off strong. Mixing depressing lyrical themes and shaky vocals with an upbeat and borderline uplifting instrumental.
From this spot, the album takes a quick left turn to an alternative country song. This heavily sexual love song juxtaposes Owens’ and more specifically his hands with two beautiful horses, running through pastures, over the skies, and… eventually ending up between his lover’s legs. While some of the lyrics are borderline uncomfortable, it is uplifting to hear this track right after “No Good” which saw him struggling with love and a prior partner. This pivots into “I Think About Heaven,” a song that opens with “As the hart panteth after the water brooks,” a Bible verse from Psalms 42. Growing up in the radical Christian cult, “Children of God,” Owens had a deeply religious upbringing. His brother died in infancy from a curable disease as his parents being members of the cult, refused to seek medical assistance due to their beliefs. Owens would leave the church at a young age. The Bible verse referenced talks about a deep appreciation and longing for God, which isn’t something you would expect from someone who has been subjected to a religious cult, however, he goes about it beautifully, crafting a song of hope for the future.
If Christopher Owens sounded like a nasally Costello in his earlier days, he almost encapsulates a Wayne Coyne on this album, which can be shown no further than “White Flag.” Lyrically, it resembles the first track, as Owens’s softly sings about holding up a white flag as if to surrender to his partner. While I have been fawning over the lyrics of this album, the following song “I Know” shows how sonically dense the album can be, incorporating layered guitars and even a harmonica. One thing Girls was praised for universally during their run was how masterfully they were able to mix and combine widely-ranging influences, and Owens has clearly not lost that ability, mixing dream pop with elements of americana and blues rock. Owens then mixes some beautiful guitar playing with a faint piano creating the luscious “So.” His heavily washed-out voice gives room for the instruments to shine, and boy do they glimmer.
Owens shows how the music he writes is a part of him. He creates layers throughout every song with something new to notice every time you play it back, as he states in “This Is My guitar,” his guitar is a part of him. Living off your music isn’t easy, but it’s not something he can just give up. No matter his ups and downs, his guitar has been, and will always be there for him. Owens also uses the song to offer microcosms of the hell he has gone through and how he climbed out. The closing track “Do You Need a Friend” finds Owens with a false sense of optimism. The song starts with him refusing to dwell on what he has been through, instead lifting not only himself up but also preaching to the listener. After a lengthy and emotional instrumental break, however, Owens finds himself being honest with the listener. During the first half of the song, over a soft instrumental he tried to explain that “Crying only feels good for a while / Then you’re gonna have to smile,” as well as giving other similar uplifting affirmations. This is juxtaposed to the second half of the song. The second half is noisy. It beats down on you and doesn’t let go. After the instrumental break it seems as if the song is going to quiet down again to start softly speaking again, however, he begins to shout over the noise that is engulfing him. Now, instead of fake affirmations that he has seemingly been told during the worst parts of his life, he is admitting “If you really wanna know / I’m barely making it through the days.” The noise just gets louder and louder, he yells so much that his voice is breaking, but he doesn’t let the noise drown him out. It almost makes you question the more uplifting parts of the album, and if Owens truly meant the happier songs he wrote, or if he was slowly drowning and trying to find a way out. No matter, one thing is for certain and it is that Christopher Owens needs a friend. His love of music wasn’t a friend to him, his parents weren’t friends to him, and his ex-partner definitely wasn’t either. But, through the pain and darkness, it appears that Owens is at peace with himself, and the journey he has taken. I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair sees Christopher Owens as a completely different person than the frontman we once knew who headed beloved indie rockers “Girls.” Regardless of all the tribulations, Owens has been through, he returns with a stellar album reaffirming his songwriting ability to those who haven’t heard from him in nearly a decade.
Leave a Reply