Velocity Girl

Gilded Stars and Jealous Hearts (Sub Pop)
by Joshua Brown

The would-be gilded stars with hearts of zeal, who put the “pop” in their label’s name after the “Teen Spirit” epiphany, release their third full-length. “I wanted to mean so much to them,” sings Velocity Girl (and only female in the band) Sarah Shannon, weak-kneed and vibrant, “I guess I tried too hard.” The reason they mean so much to indie-pop fans is the endearing manner with which they try too hard. To be a star, it’s really not necessary to tuck so many exquisitely calculated outbursts of emotion and understated glory into one album. I mean, where’s the filler, fer crissakes? Each consecutive Velocity Girl release has been a higher plateau of heart-string plucking, rockin’ sentimentality that gets more difficult to compare with anyone’s sound but their own. The last song on the new album says there is “one word for every revelation.” The word for what Gilded Stars and Jealous Hearts reveals is “lovely.”