ALBUM REVIEW: Girlfriends Drops Long Awaited Self-Titled Debut Album
ALBUM REVIEW: Girlfriends Drops Long Awaited Self-Titled Debut Album
And trust us, pop-punk duo Travis Mills and Nick Gross delivered!
Words by: Amanda Marano
girlfriends, the pop-punk duo comprised of Travis Mills [musical artist, Beats 1 Host, actor] and Nick Gross [Big Noise, Gross Labs, Find Your Grind], have finally released their debut Self-Titled album. Produced by John Feldmann and inspired by influential artists like blink-182, 5 Seconds Of Summer, The 1975, Phoenix and All Time Low, the band knows no boundaries and thrives in their energetic hooks, fury, and optimistic swagger.
The compilation opens with the edgy and nostalgic “The First Time”, making you reminisce about the days of will-they-won’t-they and first loves. Skip forward to the anthemic lead single, “California“ comes through with a beat that courses through you and you can’t help but bop along. They hook listeners instantly with the line, “California looks good on ya but it made a mess of me” – becoming the unofficial summer anthem we all desperately needed this year. “Jessica” follows a few tracks later, with that pop-punk throwback feel akin to the days of Metro Station’s “Kelsey”. The high-energy track is sure to be a fan-favorite.
The album spares no shortage of industry veteran features, with three tracks featuring iconic friends. On “Over My Head”, the duo is joined by Bert McCracken and his powerful vocals over a more electronic beat. “Where Were You” is driven by the beating drums of Blink-182’s Travis Barker against the yearning lyrics and emotional soundscape. With an unforgettable chorus, they sing, “Tell me where were you the day it all went down / Did it feel good, is it better now / Sometimes you have to find your own way out / But it’s all good when you look around / Tell me where were you the day it all went down.”
The band pauses on the guest features with the sad, romantic, and intimate “Wicked Games”, and the sonic, uplifting, and muse-driven excitement of “Sugar on Her Lips.” They pick back up when Death by Romy joins the duo for a fun, wholesome, harmony-filled duet on “2am” as she sings along “It’s 2AM / Life’s goes again / With you I’m not? /Just breathe / When you’re laying next to me / I feel safe from everyone / Stuck in the middle / I just need a little / A little bit more of you / I feel safe from everyone.” The album is sealed with the reminiscing and widely relatable “We’re All Fucked Up”, where listeners can resonate with all the feelings the lyrics encapsulate.
The duo both found themselves rising on the scene in their teenage years, with Travis posting music as T. Mills on MySpace in his Riverside, California bedroom and Gross in New York’s Times Square playing MTV’s TRL at 17. Travis ended up getting a major label deal and a spot on the Warped Tour, while Gross found himself in a pop-punk band featured prominently on Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, with a major label contract of their own.
“This record has been a long time coming,” shares Mills on the album. “It encapsulates all of my teenage despair with a perspective I haven’t been able to articulate until these last 5 years. It’s an exercise in honesty, vulnerability, angst and excitement with nostalgia as the glue that holds it all together. This is my journal entry. This is my life. This is girlfriends.”
“All the worlds collided between what Feldmann was already doing with his production style and where Travis wanted to go musically,” Nick explains. “It’s been really cool and went really quickly. We wrote close to 20 songs in just a few months.”
To celebrate the release, the duo hosted a girlfriends x Team Rogue Album Listening Party on Twitch featuring Dr. Lupo, Travis, Rogue and more. They also recently dropped the music videos for singles “Eyes Wide Shut“ and “California”, which garnered praise from from MTV’s Friday Livestream, Loudwire, Alternative Press, PopCrush, idobi Radio, Noctis Magazine and more.
