Other Girls: Perfect Cities

Cleveland’s Other Girls bring taut melodies and impassioned singing to the drafting table as they lay out their blueprint for better municipal living in their full-length release Perfect Cities. It’s a reasonable project; a city as desiccated as Cleveland could certainly use a rock-and-roll overhaul. Other Girls muster all their energy to rejuvenate the city. They strum and wail with a punky rough-edged flange like the Strokes shook down Band of Horses for booze money, resulting in brilliant, intense pop rock that rarely lets up.

In eleven rolling anthems of self-aware post-adolescent angst, Other Girls pine for escape from youth, adulthood, relationships, and the city tangle of lights and people. Third track “The Long Con” expresses this escapist impulse: “I want to go to a place where no one can drive / I want to see that city where the honest people hide / Can you take me to that place tonight?” The shimmering wall of guitars and optimistic major-key riffs contribute to Other Girls’ vision of a mythic city free of the pollution of human folly. Ultimately, though, they abandon idealist fantasies and reconcile with the responsibilities presented by reality. On “The Facility,” they concede, “We took a shot but that won’t free us / Another empty no good pain / … / We might have chanced to make escape / We’re in this together now and it’s the price we’ll pay.” The stories presented here are personal but universal, local but mythic, and they are backed up by grin-inspiring melodic barrages of ecstasy.

The album is mature in its outlook, but youthful in its energy. And while the energy is infectious, it can be exhausting since it rarely relents. Nevertheless, Cleveland should vote Other Girls for city council. Their vision is invigorating and their performance here provides a fleeting escape from the grind of the burned-out city.