Girlpool's full-band transformation has illuminated its raw sound in deep and unexpected ways, as heard on last year's Powerplant. In addition to "Picturesong" — a one-off single with Dev Hynes — Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker have continued to explore different textures in self-released solo recordings, which provide clues for a pair of new Girlpool songs out now.
"Where You Sink" first appeared on Tividad's Oove Is Rare as a quiet acoustic track, but here gets transformed into dream-pop at a clop-along drum-machine beat. The song coos sweetly as it puzzles over human desire. Tividad writes in a press release:
"Where You Sink" explores our fixations on characters in our lives and the projections we create. It explores our natural human desire to be made special by another. I wrote it when I found myself looking at one person from various angles (emotionally); I found them to be beautiful in toxic but charismatic ways. It's about loving someone who you don't really have the chance to get to know fully because their time is spent trying to get out of their head, further from reality. It explores the complications of trying to get close to someone who ultimately wants to be far from themselves."
"Lucy's," likewise, also appeared on a solo recording — now deleted — from Cleo Tucker. Girlpool's version turns inward with big, jagged, Polvo-style guitar chords as Tucker ponders "stubborn feelings from a past relationship":
I wrote "Lucy's" a couple of years ago to sort through some droning thoughts about hope, distraction and love. "I swear I'll be all right / Although (you) are in the sky," continues to resonate. These lyrics distinguish a time when my partner would check out from our relationship. I reassured myself that even when they were not present, and I was, that I would be all right. I was hopeful that my partner would find resolve from their struggles, which stifled their capacity to provide the kind of care and attention that I needed. I practiced nurture, and I hoped that they would find the ambition that I saw in them.
Girlpool goeson tourin late October.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDEwMTk5OTQ0MDEzNDkxMDYyMDQ2MjdiMw004))
