Girls & Boys is Damon looking at 18-30 holiday-going with a kind of horrified fascination and attraction. It's a really unpleasant position to take in a pop song, albeit an honest enough one in its own way, but it probably just sold because it had a novelty disco beat and a catchy chorus.Actually, I do agree that The Universal is a great song, mentally I had it placed on one of the later records.
"Girls and Boys" was a particularly big hit in my school and at the time I thought ti was really stupid so that soured my broader view on them for ages.
People these days dismiss Damon as mocking or aping the working class back then but I think that's a bit off, I think he's trying to work something out about how the world of the 90s works through those songs, and it drove him insane in the end.