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.

[18] 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.

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.

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.

"[21] 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.

"[21] 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.

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.

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.

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.

Elsewhere, the heavy metal "muscle workout" of "Die" was noted by Owens himself as being inspired by an early Fleetwood Mac track, "Oh Well".

"[10] "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.

"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.

"[10][26] On the album's intricate and significantly enhanced production, White commented; "During (Father, Son, Holy Ghost) we kind of realized what the band is.

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.

"Jamie Marie", the album's closing track, was written about a girlfriend that Owens had left behind in Amarillo, Texas, when he first moved to San Francisco.

The distinctive video featured lead singer Owens driving through an array of city streets in a 1966 Ford Mustang.

The performance was notable for being the first time that Girls were accompanied by a trio of female backing singers on stage, as well as an organ player; both of which would join the group for their subsequent tour around the world to support the album.

The video featured an elderly woman who represented Owens' mother, and followed her as she "reflected on her craft as an actress, showing that she can still conjure emotion on command."

In place of Album's sometimes hard-to-swallow, wallowing self-pity, Holy Ghost is streaked with a buoyant, some might call it spiritual, sense of self-consciousness, while maintaining the endearing timidity.

"[47] Pitchfork's Mark Richardson gave the album a Best New Music designation, writing "Since the retirement of LCD Soundsystem, San Francisco's Girls [...] just might be the band best making use of the current situation.

Richardson continued: "This lyrical simplicity shouldn't obscure the fact that these are sharply constructed songs that take unusual turns.

"[8] Allmusic's Jason Lymangrover, on the other hand, criticized Father, Son, Holy Ghost for being more indulgent than Album, writing, "All too often, artists follow up a breakout debut with a difficult sophomore outing, and Girls fall prey to the syndrome, overcompensating for average songs with dazzling instrumentation."

The bad ones, chief among them 'Saying I Love You,' wrap trivial sentiments in precocious pop arrangements and conjure Lite FM mainstays like Bread, Poco, America and Rupert Holmes [...].

[18] He also expressed how he would have liked to have toured all together with everyone that featured on the recording, but that "the keyboard player wanted something like $2000 a week, which we cannot afford, and the drummer we were hoping for, but he has his own band."

[22] The tour in support of Father, Son, Holy Ghost began on September 3, 2011, in Los Angeles and ended on October 9, 2011, in San Francisco.