"As a teenager, your biggest concerns may include embarrassment in front of peers, family structural stability, and romantic relationships. As an adult, your biggest concerns are likely similar. Another teenage fear might be someone finding your journal, reading your deepest joys and terrors of personhood. The second album from Portland's Nonbinary Girlfriend realizes that fear, listening like an evolutionary confessional of what it is to be a human in the 21st century."
"IM NOT PRETTY's lyrics could be journal entries by anyone who has woken up next to a partner not knowing why, felt detached from their lives and bodies due to circumstances out of their control, experienced assault, or heard a part of themselves incessantly say, "You're not enough." Anyone with trauma-processed or otherwise-will hear themselves in IM NOT PRETTY, and gain insight into how others deal with the weight of existence."
IM NOT PRETTY frames private fears and insecurities as confessional songs that echo teenage and adult anxieties about peers, family stability, and romantic relationships. The lyrics read like journal entries confronting waking beside a partner, bodily detachment, assault, and persistent self-criticism whispering "You're not enough." The music offers listeners insight into trauma and how others carry existence's weight. James Binkowski, a military kid from Illinois, moved to Portland and began Nonbinary Girlfriend as a 2021 solo project; the moniker reflected earlier gender identity. The project pursues psychic healing amid transitions and has expanded into a band.
Read at Portland Mercury
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