Lauran Hibberd - Girlfriend Material (Album Review)
Wednesday, 27 March 2024
Written by Jack McGill
Photo: Emily Marcovecchio
Sometimes you need something to transport you to a different place; to get away from whatever’s slowing you down. For the most part that’s what Lauran Hibberd’s ‘Girlfriend Material’ provides, its satisfactory indie-rock speckled with pop culture references to make you feel included in its part break up, part grief, part Mean Girls world.
Here self-deprecating lyrics meet uplifting pop-punk hooks that kidnap your attention, the LP’s comforting waves of nostalgia quickly washing away like so much wet look hair gel. For most of its running time it’s a diverting novelty, but even with that taken into account it’s tonally uneven.
I Suck at Grieving convinces us that the album is about one thing — trying to process trauma at your own pace — but tracks such as Anti Fragile, Jealous and 90’s Kid lay on the teen film aesthetic so thick that it comes close to erasing the foundations laid in the first song.
The majority of ‘Girlfriend Material’ offers a vicarious experience of ‘90s and ‘00s American pop culture via sassy, camp, and scandalous movie plots, which already looked at their subjects through romanticised, polarised views of reality.
The almost-a-reject rock is stale, with no apparent foundations in Hibberd’s current experience, but moments such as Not the Girl You Hoped pull the curtain back on her vulnerable self, allowing what feels like a genuine connection for the first time. Nostalgia is sweet for a moment, but sugar rushes tend to leave you feeling empty.
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