Christopher Owens : I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair
If ever a songwriter earned the descriptor “open-hearted,” it’s Christopher Owens. As the frontman of celebrated indie rock band Girls, he made it his business to connect us to a naked, romantic yearning in the simplest language possible. “I know you’re out there, you might be right around the corner / And you’ll be the girl that I love.” “I don’t want to cry my whole life through / I wanna do some laughing, too / So come on, come on, come on, come on and laugh with me.” “Come into my heart.”
Girls released two LPs, each sharing in this open-heartedness but very different in the aesthetic used to bring it across. Album is rough-hewn, chimey, largely lo-fi even as it whips stylistically from surf rock to shoegaze to fuzzed-up rock n’ roll. Father, Son, Holy Ghost is better mannered, emulating a big late ‘60s/early ‘70s rock record: gospel choirs, organs, more studio polish than Album and as much emotion.
Owens has released four solo albums since then. In his two most recent, I hear him channeling each of these approaches. His underrated 2015 album Chrissybaby Forever succeeded because it reintroduced some of that rabid Album sound into his music. By contrast, I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair sounds a lot like Father, Son, Holy Ghost. It’s Owens’ most well-manicured solo project: gospel choirs, expansive and treacly guitar workouts. But while Father, Son projected a sun-streaked sincerity, there’s nothing sunny about this album. It sounds great, but it’s Owens’ darkest project to date.
Some of the songs on I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair emerged during sessions for a third Girls album, tragically cut short by Owens’ bandmate Chet “JR” White’s death in 2020. It was the latest in a string of horrors Owens had faced since 2017: his fiancée left him; he was in a serious motorcycle accident; he lost his job and lived out of a camper that was eventually stolen, along with his cat and favorite guitar.
I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair accounts for this dark period in Owens’ life by suggestion. There are moments of quiet hope; ironically, the peak of the album comes at its most optimistic point, “Distant Drummer,” a folk rock stomper like Girls by way of The Band. “I’ll be all right/ As long as I follow my guiding star/ And shine on through the night,” Owens sings, cutting to the bone as usual. But the general mood is one of slow-moving despair. He opens the album with “No, not another love song/ Not one more song where I’m pretending everything will be okay,” and bookends it with “If you really wanna know, I’m barely making it through the day.”
In favoring languid instrumental workouts, the album can sometimes feel soupy. The last two songs in particular, “Two Words” and “Do You Need a Friend,” tend to fade into the background. But I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair is the type of record that doesn’t give itself away. It takes its time, trusting you to wade into the muck at your own pace and eventually find the riches underneath. And considering everything Owens has been through these past few years, that it exists at all is cause for joy.
Label: True Panther
Year: 2024
Similar Albums:
Christopher Owens : I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair
Note: When you buy something through our affiliate links, Treble receives a commission. All albums we cover are chosen by our editors and contributors.
