"These characters frequently seek transcendence, whether through romance (the tender acoustic ballad "Away You Stride") or music itself ("Little Left Hope" includes a proposal to start a band). If they don't feel doomed from the start, they give up altogether: On "Pale Song," the narrator believes their life could be written on "stone with a little chalk," and they can't bring themselves to go out and actually live it."
"The moments of direct storytelling feel more tantalizing considering how little we know about the writer. "Feathers, Cash" and "When You Tie Your Hair Up" are straightforward breakup songs with lovingly intimate imagery; on the former, he describes drawing dogs with the steam in a shower, and on the latter, he notices stress manifesting in his own hands: "The skin creased in our palms cuts deeper each night," he sings."
Characters frequently seek transcendence through romance or music, often feeling doomed or surrendering before fully living. "Pale Song" frames a life that could be written "on stone with a little chalk," capturing paralysis and passivity. "Jaundice" portrays people "born without any face" and "without any roots" while musically leaning into an Irish jig energy with a tom-heavy shuffle, celebrating anonymity. Breakup songs like "Feathers, Cash" and "When You Tie Your Hair Up" use intimate, surreal imagery—drawing dogs in shower steam and skin creased in palms cutting deeper each night. Arrangements build to crescendos then strip away into pining, and surreal incantatory lines like "my one polished orb" blend weirdness with classic pop songwriting.
Read at Pitchfork
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