Reactionary Reviews | Valley Girl | Amy Tjasink
Valley Girl is a bright breezy self-identified contemporary folk album that is charming until you listen to it.
Most of the tracks function as a sing-along background, the kind of songs that take no effort to hum along to because the rhythms are just the last syllable of the previous word echoed. And for a breezy pop, sorry, contemporary folk album, what else do you need?
For one thing, fewer songs about “Mzansi” and “Hope” that sample Mango Groove's pennywhistle.
“Kommetjie Boys” is a song that romanticises having parents who own beach houses and never having to get a job. Each to their own. However, how is Kommetjie the “Deep South”? Which brings me to the album title, aren't Valley Girls an LA thing? Is Kommetjie technically a valley when it is mostly beach? How are people still getting BBMs in 2026?
Freebird is case in point, a song about wanting to be as famous as a song, wanting to have your voice heard, wanting to be famous, wanting to be as big as my dreams, without having a voice of its own. Tjasink aspires to being famous by singing about the aspiration to be famous.
For the most part the songs on Valley Girl aim to be recognisable, using the concepts of the carefree summer album, or the rousing South African pub anthem, the small town aspiration of an 80s pop song, and they fail. The tracks Shadows Of The Sun, Sunshine and Holly's Lullaby are where Tjasink, less eager to aspire to a radio format, actually skirts contemporary folk, and produces little memorable heartfelt ballads. Elsewhere Valley Girl seems to have lied about its whereabouts.