Girl in a Coma’s new album, “Exits and All the Rest,” is seductively melancholy. Its habitual dark mood is on purpose, and is a 180 from the band’s last original effort, “Trio B.C.” GIAC is easily my favorite new band; although they have been together for a few years they are still relatively new to the industry.
Front woman and guitarist Nina Diaz, her sister and drummer Phanie Diaz and bassist Jenn Alva make for a terrific ensemble to fit their style of music. When I first discovered the band, “Trio B.C.” just dropped and GIAC was promoting the song “Static Mind,” a rockabilly type upbeat song that set the theme of the album.
“Exits and All the Rest” is not like that. It’s a more polished album in terms of recording whereas “Trio B.C.” sounded as if the girl rockers recorded the album in one take – its raw sound made for an incredible listen.
This time around, Nina Diaz and company bring an immense coffee lounge type atmosphere intertwined with extraordinary moments. The first song on “Exits and All the Rest” is “Adjust,” a melodious appeal mixed with the alluring haunting of Diaz on vocals.
The album ramps up momentum with “One Eyed Fool,” a progressively increasing chord succession that acts as a siren song that lures listeners into a hypnotic dream state that could only be accomplished by Girl in a Coma. Fans of artists like The Smiths will appreciate this professional sounding effort from an up and coming band that is not only paving its own way in rock music, but creating a genre that no other band could possibly do.
There are many great songs on “Exits and All the Rest,” tunes like “So,” “Cemetery Baby” and “Control.” This album is top to bottom perfect and brilliantly poignant. Seriously, if you haven’t discovered Girl in a Coma, it’s about time you should. You’ll find that it is a coma worth slipping into.