On Truly, Golightly's oft-repeated title as the "queen of English garage rock" proves something of a misnomer. The songs are wrapped in guitar reverb, echoes and shimmering early-'60s girl-group cool rather than pounding protopunk chords -- it's more Shangri-La's than Yeah Yeah Yeahs by far. Her flat and choppy but commanding voice on "Walk a Mile" and "You Have Yet to Win" echo this, as do the Frug-tastic turns on a Ray Davies cover, "Time Will Tell."
What producers Phil Spector or Joe Meek could have done with Golightly is something that will tantalize rock nerds for years, and her forays into blues (the fine "Black Night," which is most closely associated with Texas City native Charles Brown) and love cooing (another Davies song, "Tell Me Now So I Know") show she's no one-note wonder. Mostly stripped down on disc, this material will be interesting to see translated live. Though tales of soured relationships and her hardly varying delivery expose her limitations, Holly Golightly lives up to the title of the CD, a real singer with spunk in an era of prefabricated female pop drones.