Father, Son, Holy Ghost is the second and final studio album by San Francisco rock band Girls, released September 13, 2011 on True Panther Sounds in the United States, September 12, 2011, on Fantasytrashcan/Turnstile in Europe, September 7, 2011, in Japan on Fantasytrashcan/Turnstile and September 14 in Mexico on Arts & Crafts México.GIRLS: Father, Son, Holy Ghost 9.13.11 . True Panther Sounds. July 7, 2011. Retrieved August 8, 2011.Girls set to release Father, Son, Holy Ghost on Sept. 12, 2011 . Turnstile. July 7, 2011. Retrieved August 8, 2011.ACMX040 . Arts & Crafts México. Retrieved August 31, 2011. Three singles were released from the album; "Vomit", "Honey Bunny" and "My Ma", the latter of which was released exclusively on vinyl with a limited 1000 copies in print. The album peaked at #37 on the Billboard 200 and received critical acclaim upon its release.

A significant departure from the band's previous work, Father, Son, Holy Ghost elaborated with lavish production, gospel choirs and a more varied instrumentation that resulted in a sound that spanned various genres such as surf rock, folk, soul, hard rock, and even progressive rock. Unlike the group's debut Album, it was not exclusively produced by the band themselves but was a collaboration with veteran engineer Doug Boehm. The album's sound and composition style was noted to be part of a trend of modern indie revivalism artists who reach back decades into the past for inspiration, with songs such as "Honey Bunny", "Love Like a River" and lead single "Vomit" in particular being heavily influenced by music from the 1960s and 1970s. Of the album's "old" style of production and the evolution of the band's sound, one critic noted that Father, Son, Holy Ghost eschews "Albums ramshackle scrappiness for the classic-rock-radio sophistication of Billy Preston-era Beatles and early-70s Pink Floyd."

The album was recognized as one of The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far by Pitchfork in August 2014, and one of The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s in October 2019.

Background and recording Girls came to prominence in independent music circles with the release of their first single "Hellhole Ratrace" in 2008, and then came to the attention of critics with the release of their debut album Album in 2009. Album was praised as one of the best records of the year, with critics lauding the emotional nuance and honesty of frontman Christopher Owens' songwriting, and the old-fashioned grittiness of the album's sound. The band released the Broken Dreams Club EP in 2010, as a way of "giving thanks to their listeners" who had supported them from the beginning.Bevan, David. Girls: Broken Dreams Club EP. Pitchfork Media. November 18, 2010. Retrieved July 30, 2011. The EP featured progressive tracks such as "Carolina", and several critics noted how the group's sound was evolving dramatically to a style that would come to define many of the tracks on Father, Son, Holy Ghost.Lewis, Sam. Girls – Broken Dreams Club . Drowned in Sound. December 2, 2010. Retrieved July 30, 2011. In an interview with Spin, Owens said the album's title was chosen to reflect the music's spiritual quality and explained that it was referred to as "Record 3" on the album cover to reflect the importance of Broken Dreams Club as the band's second record, despite not being a full-length album. According to Owens, it was "simply a nod (to the EP), which was a big statement".Girls announce new album . Positive Destruction. July 7, 2011. Retrieved February 10, 2013.

For the recording of Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Girls sought out drummer Darren Weiss, keyboardist Dan Eisenberg and guitarist John Anderson, all of whom became touring members for the group except Anderson, who quit just before the tour commenced. The band also utilized a trio of gospel singers for the first time, a group of pros who had worked with Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. They would go on to tour with the group as well. This was a significant contrast to the recording of Album, which was solely a collaboration between Owens and his friend Chet "JR" White, with Owens playing most of the instruments and White handling most of the production duties. It was predominantly recorded in San Francisco's Golden Gate Studios and Los Angeles' The Sound Factory, with Doug Boehm, who had worked with K.D. Lang and Elliott Smith, producing the album in collaboration with the band themselves.Carroll, Jim. Forget the cults and drugs, Girls just wanna have fun . The Irish Times. August 29, 2011. Retrieved September 6, 2011. Although an immaculately recorded finished product, with one critic noting that "the album sounds 'old' simply because it sounds so incredibly good," it was a troublesome and labored effort to record, with Boehm noting, "It wasn't an easy record to make. Nobody knew their parts."Ryzik, Melena. A Time to Go Solo, at Least Onstage. The New York Times. January 9, 2013. Retrieved February 4, 2013. The Golden Gate studio was noted to be a "cavernnous basement" setting that was devoid of most of the traditional facilities of modern recording studios. White recalled the set-up as being unothodox and challenging: "I remember I walked in the space and the live room was nothing more than just a concrete basement of this office building. There was something about this room that wasn't a tuned recording studio live room." At one stage, when the band found the outside noise and flushing toilets from the above levels of the building too intrusive, they rigged a vocal booth out of Marshall Amp stacks that were lying around the studio, belonging to Boehm – an excessive gear collector. According to White, "He had an amp collection that was bordering on a real gear addiction. You could fill a 20×20 room to the top. It was an insane amount of stuff."

In a rare interview in the aftermath of Girls' breakup, White revealed that his relationship with Owens during the recording process was difficult, with the two barely on speaking terms. "While we were making the album – he's my best friend – but we weren't talking, and I still don't really know why. To me, I think maybe something happened that he feels uncomfortable talking about, but really, I'll never know." White felt that from the very start of the recording sessions he could foresee the end of Girls as a band; his relationship with Owens only a fraction of what it was at the time of the first album. "The basic idea was that the band was built around camaraderie and friendship, for me at least. At some point the band felt like, as stupid as it sounds, "a band of brothers." It felt like more than a band. So, when it became a band, it became less interesting and just a failure of our relationship. That was the whole band, him and I, so the failure of one meant the failure of both."

Composition

Music Father, Son, Holy Ghost was noted by several critics as being heavily influenced by a "bygone era" of music from the 1960s and 1970s, a larger occurring trend of artists reaching back to past decades for musical inspiration in structure, composition and tonality of sound. This was noted by critic Simon Reynolds in his book Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past as a phenomenon that several modern indie bands have become a part of. Reynolds argued that "pop culture has become obsessed with recycling from history," with Pitchfork clarifying upon his view that "In the age of the limitless archive, the relationship between new artists and their influences are changing," referencing Girls and LCD Soundsystem as two such examples.Richardson, Mark. We talk with music critic and Retromania author Simon Reynolds in the first installment of our new recurring books feature. Pitchfork Media. August 1, 2011. Retrieved February 4, 2013. The album consisted of a vast array of influences and sounds from these eras, spanning from genres such as surf rock to folk, heavy metal and progressive rock. Examples of bands from these eras that influenced the album's overall sound include Deep Purple, Elvis Costello, Paul Simon, The Beach Boys and Pink Floyd. The album's opening track "Honey Bunny" is an example of a song influenced heavily by surf rock in particular, with critics noting its similarities to certain sixties staples such as "Fun, Fun, Fun" by The Beach Boys and "Kodachrome" by Paul Simon. Elsewhere, the heavy metal "muscle workout" of "Die" was noted by Owens himself as being inspired by an early Fleetwood Mac track, "Oh Well". "Die" was the result of a riff that Owens and White had been jamming with for a long time, something that finally resulted in a song that Owens has said is essentially "just us pretending to be rock n' rollers for a little bit." "Vomit" verges on epic, progressive rock, utilising a gospel choir that creates a wall of sound not dissimilar to early seventies records from bands such as Pink Floyd, with one critic describing it as "the kind of wailing gospel-like vocals that signified "authenticity" when the Stones and Floyd ruled the world."Kornhaber, Spencer. The Story Behind the Loveliest Rock Album of the Year (So Far). The Atlantic. September 20, 2011. Retrieved September 29, 2011.

Of the slower, more folk and classical inspired numbers on the album, Owens said of "Just a Song" that it was an example of "staying true to your songs, not letting the time that's passed since they've been written alter the way they sound at the end of the day." "Just a Song" features classical guitar picking and flutes played on a mellotron, a distinctive style of sound that Owens would come to heavily explore on his first solo outing, Lysandre, a concept album that he released in January 2013. Owens called the album's sombre closing track "Jamie Marie", a "Randy Newman" song. He went on to note the similarities between himself and Newman when it comes to conveying his own songs; "(Newman) writes these amazing songs that people cover – when Nina Simone sings "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" you want to cry. But even when Randy Newman sings it and his voice is obviously bad, you still say to yourself that it's a fucking knockout song. It was a challenge for me to sing (some of my) songs but, at the end of the day, it's like, 'Oh fucking well.' You just do it."Dombal, Ryan. Interviews: Girls . Pitchfork Media. September 13, 2011. Retrieved September 16, 2011. On the album's intricate and significantly enhanced production, White commented; "During (Father, Son, Holy Ghost) we kind of realized what the band is. There's certain things I have reservations about... like maybe it's overkill or too obvious. Even the backup vocalists. Like on "Honey Bunny" they're kind of over the top. But to me, it has this almost musical theater vibe on the end when they all come in." White went on to credit the unexpected sectioned arrangements of songs like "Honey Bunny" and "Die" to Owens; "Chris will tend to throw in parts like that. To me it always feels like there's almost a tape edit – this drastic change. Like the song was built in a non-linear fashion. There's not really a fear in making it sound kind of awkward or patched together. To me, that's kind of exciting.

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