Gal Pal
This and Other Gestures
YOUTH RIOT
If you haven’t already made friends with Gal Pal, it’s time to get acquainted with one of Los Angeles’ most sincere, unpretentious, and pleasant-sounding bands. As well-suited for playing community music festivals as they are touring with indie rock bands of any subsect, LA’s latest leading lights boast breathtaking breadth on their second effort.
Gal Pal’s colorful canvas features gentle vocals carefully layered atop introverted math rock and light noise. Like any record that’s this well-considered, This and Other Gestures starts small (with the relatively minimal “Say No”), expands its scope with palatable experimentalism midway through (“Think About Your Crush”), and concludes with the album’s most ambitious song (the six-and-a-half-minute title track). Perhaps Gal Pal—Emelia Austin, Shayna Hahn, and Nico Romero—learned album craft during the flurry of activity they banked pre-COVID. The trio pumped out their Girlish debut in 2017, played gigs with Pile and Momma, and issued an EP in 2019 before the pandemic stopped the world for a while. During that time, the band members entered their mid-twenties and focused on themes of—as they put it—“life, death, love, and grief.”
The band members share surprisingly candid insights about their personal lives throughout This and Other Gestures. Romero discusses dealing with gender dysphoria and the ensuing transition. Hahn addresses the loss of a close friend. Austin opens up about seeking self-acceptance. A striking sample on “King Mama” that shines more light on the album’s themes: “No one loves you like I do… It’s a different kind of love… I Just don’t want to hurt you / And that’s my fear / And I hate that fear rules so much of my life.” That lyric is radically different from the out-of-left-field sample of baseball announcers that crops up on “Pleasures.” While it feels out of place, the song also showcases Gal Pal’s dalliance with late-’90s Midwest emo, characterized between dual lead vocals and occasional sprechgesang.
Don’t get them wrong, though: Gal Pal aren’t trying to resurrect yesteryear’s emo. To call them a throwback band at all would be a tragic disservice. As its three members earnestly discuss their own personal lives, This and Other Gestures acts as the soundtrack to listeners who are on their own journeys—whether their struggles resemble Gal Pal’s or not.
