Forgiveness

Girlpool

explicit

Released on 4/29/22 by Anti - Epitaph
Main artists: Girlpool
Genre: Alternative & Indie

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Over the past decade, it's been fascinating to hear the metamorphosis of Girlpool. Back in 2012, friends Avery Tucker and Harmony Tividad were Los Angeles high schoolers playing at the all-ages venue The Smell. Two years later they were hollering on their self-titled EP about the frustrations of being young women in a world not evolving as fast as you want, and in 2015 their debut album, Before the World Was Big, highlighted the chilling charm of their insistent voices united like twins. With each subsequent record, the sound has become more polished without being any less spartan. In 2019, the two wrote songs individually for the first time, for What Chaos Is Imaginary, as Tucker was finding his literal new voice after gender-transitioning. The duo's latest is a work of great beauty underscored by the message that life is both sides of a coin: as wonderful as it can be, there is always the threat of pain—by someone who loves you, to yourself, to those you care about, within acts of complicitness and misguided good intentions. Even as the songs are tender sounding, the imagery can be violent. "Do you even want me if I have to ask? Break it to me gently with your fingers up my ass," Tividad sings on "Nothing Gives Me Pleasure," its glitchy drums sounding like there's a ghost in the machine. She has said that the song "was written during a time when I was working so hard to get someone specific to love and recognize me. On the path to doing that, I diluted myself…." With Tividad reaching a high-as-the-sky falsetto, "Junkie," and its declaration "I'm a junkie for you," could be read as romantic—or a dangerous act of self harm. "Every day it's Friday night/ I hold my body like a butcher knife" goes the opener of "Faultline," its music as dreamy and easygoing as the lyrics are tense. Goth-ish "Afterlife" warns "I know the devil sleeps/ Because he sleeps with me"; with echoes of both Evanescence and Billie Eilish, it could be an underdog radio hit. Throughout, hearing Tucker's emerging voice sing his story is enthralling. "I was young for a girl/ I was tough/ Now I'm figuring out/ How you see me now," he sings on the bittersweet acoustic "See Me Now." "I don't want to overthink/ The things I hope her friends don't say." His hushed, husky sound against Tucker's light falsetto, on songs like folky "Violet" and fragile "Love333"—on which the two trade verses and reunite on a chorus—is a whole new magical harmony. "Dragging My Life Into a Dream" boasts an almost Carpenters-esque chorus; "Country Star" wows with a Siouxsie-style drum beat, chilled '80s dance-floor synth and a fog filter on Tucker's vocals. A slice of ominous slowcore, "Lie Love Lullaby" lets the music drop away for dramatic effect and serves up visceral evocation: "Twist me over the sink … What's a lie love lullaby/ When we sing it every night?" ©Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

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Forgiveness

Girlpool

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Nothing Gives Me Pleasure Explicit

00:03:48

Lawrence Rothman, Mixer - Jesse Newport, Engineer - Girlpool, Composer, Lyricist, MainArtist - Yves Rothman, Producer, Engineer - Ainjel Emme, Engineer - Ben Zelico, Producer - Jake Supple, Engineer - SOLIKEWHAT (ASCAP), MusicPublisher - Small Whatever (ASCAP), MusicPublisher