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Doe's Crunchy 'Labour Like I Do' Channels '90s Riff-Pop

Doe's <em>Grow Into It</em> comes out Sept. 28.
Andrew Northrop
/
Courtesy of the artist
Doe's Grow Into It comes out Sept. 28.

Never expect someone to organize your life, to bear the weight of responsibility that should be shared. Whether it's household chores or managing trauma, there's a wide spectrum of emotional labor that piles up, particularly on women, as physical and mental exhaustion reach a tipping point.

Doe's new album, Grow Into It, deals with the pains of growing up, polishing the London trio's oblong, punk-battered riff-pop. It's clear that guitarist and singer Nicola Leel has navigated the choppy waters of emotional labor for far too long, and on "Labour Like I Do" (spelled with a British u, of course) she responds with blunt feedback: "We'll go swimming / I'll breathe for both of us / And you'll let me / Because you don't have the guts."

"'Labour Like I Do' is one of those songs that came flowing out like a stream of consciousness," Leel tells NPR Music. "For that reason, it's lyrically one of the more straight-up songs on the record, but sometimes it's cool when you blurt out a bunch of words to music and realize you've used songwriting as a form of accidental therapy."

Premiering today with a video featuring domestic aliens, "Labour Like I Do" sports some slide guitar and a little synth melody inspired by The Cars. Leel and guitarist Dean Smithers channel the crunchy-yet-bubbly hooks of Pixies, complete with a Frank Black-esque shout that Leel added in the studio without telling her mates first. As the band comes out of wily guitar solo, drummer Jake Popyura joins Leel in a warning to anyone who dares cross: "Next time, it's all on you."


Grow Into It comes out Sept. 28 viaTopshelf Records(U.S.) andBig Scary Monsters(Europe).

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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