The Green Lady Killers – Just Fine Album Review

The Green Lady Killers are well-produced, but their album, Just Fine, is repetitive and too familiar. The guitar chords are the same, the drum beats the same, the style the same; everything is the same stuff we’ve heard time and time again.

Let me paint a picture to help you understand this band. Imagine a Cramps theme regarding make-up, costume, and style, add in The Stooges’ guitars and melodies, and put in P.J. Harvey as the lead singer. It’s really that simple. Some of the songs sound almost exactly like The Stooges or P.J. Harvey songs, which I find to be disgruntling.

Now that I have pegged them, I will discuss how the album sounds. Like I said, it’s well-produced. It’s clean, and they clearly worked extensively to make sure they didn’t lay out the tracks until they were perfect. The vocalist has a nice voice. You know those rare P.J. Harvey moments where you are like, “Wow, she’s got a great voice; why doesn’t she do that more?” That’s how this singer’s voice is.

The instrumentation is simple; they can all play, but they appear to stay limited in their comfort zones. The drums and guitars are painfully repetitive. There’s a lot of layering in the album’s production, though, which makes it sound better than it is, and moreover, leads me to believe that seeing them live would be a letdown. Now, they do have a garage sound going for them which could lend a hand during a not-so-hot performance, but I think these girls need to get a little dirtier if they want to be successful “Killers.”

My advice is stop with the late ’70s sound that people were already regurgitating in the ’90s, practice some new combos or riffs when you practice your instruments, and stop with the P.J. Harvey thing, whether it’s intentional or not. We don’t need another P.J. We don’t need the ’90s, either. But an audience can always use more sludgy garage bands. These girls are trying to come off tough, but I think they are probably really controlling about cleanliness and organization. They should stop showering, let their impeccable makeup jobs smear, stop doing another take, and start fucking up a little. And the singer should scream or yell more; killers are not supposed to be pretty. Killers are criminals, therefore these girls need to act the part a little more, else change the band name.

This was a review that turned into an advice column to the band, but I see a lot of potential for these girls which is, as of now, unmet. The Green Lady Killers’ Just Fine is about all it’s going to be, and just fine doesn’t cut it on tour or with sales. Make it fucking fantastic and get back to me when that happens, ladies.

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