Impossibly optimistic slices of upbeat 4/4 pop drenched in deja-vu familiarity throughout this LP makes for an enthusiastic, if not particularly talented celebration of the sunshine season.
Cheerful to the point of evangelism, 'Born In The Summer' is almost exclusively cliche-crazed, with often cringeworthy lyrics rattled back and forth between Prozac-assisted two-part vocal harmonies.
As a collection of 6T's-era California pop re-workings, it's formulaic and utterly predictable to the point of being tongue-in-cheek, as ASH GRAY & THE GIRLS vivaciously defiant of just about every NEVER rule in the 'How To' manual of songwriting.
With classy titles like 'The Hottest Chick In Town' and 'Born In The Summer', the acoustic guitar parts fair shake, rattle and roll, with frequent descending chord sequences a dead giveaway to the group's irreverent approach.
Country-steeped, whisky-fuelled 'straight-to-hell' insincerity unfolds in the double-negative-rich ode to salvation 'Cecil', following a bout of guitar hero-esque riffmongering, before different weapons used in conjunction with the same tactics re-invigourates the record with effective simplicity.
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A piano replaces the acoustic guitar as the driving force for 'Apple Eye' and the ultra-vivacious tone-deaf effervescence of 'Goodbye', before the happy-go-lucky bunch bow out with a carbon-copy cover of the iconic Hollies' classic 'Bus Stop'.
You may welcome the admirable 'smile-in-the-face-of-evil' spirit with which this record was conceived and created (open arms, the lot). But I tell you this, it's not one for the easily irritated.
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