Via the title of her new album for Hardly Art, stoned songstress Colleen Green proclaims I Want To Grow Up. And we have no reason to not accept the statement at face value. Certainly her appealingly shaggy arrangements of the past have given way to tighter tunes, and unlike prior recordings she has even used a studio for this effort. Lyrically, too, she turns her attention to getting her life together. But she says that she wants to grow up, not that she has reached that goal. So these songs are more about discovering the path to the goal, traveling that path, and straying off the path. Besides, growing up means knowing what you do best, so I'm happy to report that Green still delivers crunch, fuzzy, lo-fi power pop with sugary vocals. As she does that about as well as anyone American indie music, we can celebrate her path to maturity in fine fashion.
The individual songs emphasize the theme announced in the title, unspooling like diary entries recording the progress made and the progress still need to be made. Life isn't perfect, but decisions need to be made, dammit, so they get made and hope for the best. And as listeners, all is good anyway, as we get the great tunes along the way. While we hope Colleen finds what she is looking for -- and likes it when she does -- if she doesn't then she can name her next album "Growing Up Was A Dumb Idea". And I expect we will love that one as well.
I Want To Grow Up is out now via Hardly Art.
Hardly Art page for Colleen Green releases
You gotta give her bonus points for making Descendents references in her album titles.
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