And the winner for highest Top 31 debut for 2024 goes to: Brisbane, Australia’s Girl and Girl! This is a much-deserved recognition for an album that caught my attention so thoroughly this year that I couldn’t go more than a few days without listening to it. Since I first heard the album in August (it officially came out on May 24), anytime I met up with a music-curious friend who knows my proclivity for sharing good music, I would ask them, right out of the gate: “have you heard the Girl and Girl album yet?” followed shortly thereafter with “imagine Conor Oberst singing Clap Your Hands Say Yeah songs.” I still hold to that description, as it captures the sound of Girl & Girl’s music quite well.

Not only is this the band’s debut on the Top 31, the phenomenal Call A Doctor is the band’s official debut album. The band started out as a full family affair, but of the kind of mix I don’t believe I’ve seen before. On lead guitar and bass were brothers Jayden and Coby Williams, respectively. And on lead guitar/vocals and drums are Kai and Melissa “Aunt Liss” James, literal nephew and aunt, respectively. They started playing music together and released their first video and EP in 2021. In later 2022, Coby left the band, replaced by Fraser Bell on bass. Their self-released EPs, of which they released three between 2021 and 2023, found a wide enough following to get them signed to Sub Pop Records, the label their fantastic debut full-length is on.

Sub Pop Records has been killing it of late. I mean, the storied Seattle label has always been good, but look at the Sub Pop artists that showed up on the Top 31 this year: Naima Bock, Alan Sparhawk, Father John Misty, and now Girl and Girl. Four amazing albums, with more on the way.

I first found Girl and Girl thanks to their KEXP Live In-Studio Performance from May that was released in August. I’m actually going to ask you to pause here and hit play on the video above (or on the KEXP video link, as it starts the same way). “Call a Doctor,” the title song from the album, combined with “INTRO,” is an 8-minute epic, and will give you an immediate indication as to why I fell so hard for the band. Not only is Kai’s vocal track dynamic and invigorating, his knack for storytelling and baring his soul is second to none. The song starts with narration describing a “young hero” who’s in the emergency room, with a doctor telling him he’s actually just fine, while the inner voice inside the young man is telling him “You should call a doctor, you should call a doctor now” over and over again.

The story shifts to what I believe is the fabricated conversation our narrator has with the doctor he “calls.” The doctor’s voice tells the young man that not only is he not sick, but that he believes the young hero is subconsciously choosing to feel unwell to give him an out on life – if the young man is unwell, then he can easily point to that as the reason he is not excelling at life. It becomes apparent pretty quickly that this is Kai, talking to himself about his own issues of dealing with public humiliation and failure – of being deathly afraid of getting something, anything wrong, and in order to avoid being held accountable for any motivation or decision-making, he’s choosing to make himself sick. It’s a form of hypochondria I don’t believe I’ve heard described before, and I can’t speak to how exaggerated or auto-biographical it is, but I can certainly relate to the feelings he shares and the type of inner-voice conversation we all have with ourselves from time to time.

While not a complete concept album, the story told presents a theme of being unwell that carries on into other areas of the album, starting with the next song, “Hello.” This song makes it more plain that we’re hearing Kai’s inner turmoil spoken aloud. He narrates of hearing his name in the placating message he’s receiving from The Wesley Emergency Hall. “Oh, Mr. James, we’re glad you called, these thoughts you’ve had aren’t bad at all.” Followed shortly thereafter with him placating himself, “I guess I could try a more positive Kai.” Kai then exclaims he’d have been better off if he’d not called at all, because the forced positive thoughts that were recommended are “worse than hell.” The song then draws to a furious conclusion, repeating the refrain “so long, fairwell, auf wiedersehen, good night, and adieu, adieu, to you and you and you” from The Sound of Music, again and again and again.

It honestly makes me heave a sigh of relief to know that Kai is still with us. That’s the kind of sharing and openness I’ve not really experienced in music since “Floating in the Forth” by Frightened Rabbit. IYKYK.

Kai has the impressive ability to turn everything inside out, and for some reason it feels even more powerful to know that he’s performing these songs with his aunt. Two more videos have been created from the album, “Oh Boy!, and “Mother,” and they’re great songs. “OUTRO,” the last song on the album reads like a letter to a lover who’s moved away. “I hope you‘re well, ’Cause it’s hell down here. And this summer‘s long, not as long as you are near. And the doctors said any day, I’ll disappear. What a lovely day and such a shame to not be here.”

It all sounds so bleak and sad when typed out. And while Kai’s voice isn’t exactly uplifting, it’s dripping with emotion, and he sings with such fervor and the music is so bouncy, it has the strange effect of not being a depressing, doldrums listen. It is an affirmation of life, well worth repeated listening. I get to see Girl and Girl perform at the tiny Madame Lou’s theater underneath the new Croc on April 30, and I couldn’t be more excited. I urge you check out the album, and then pick up a ticket and join me. It amazes me this album hasn’t yet seen more interest, and I fully believe it’s just a matter of time.