My favorite album of 2020 is I Was Born Swimming by Squirrel Flower (Punisher is a close second but I’ll save that for another issue). I first heard “Streetlight Blues” in an episode of New Music Friday right before the pandemic began. I remember that I stopped what I was doing, sent the song to a friend—with the accompanying message, “You’ll love this”—and proceeded to become obsessed with the record. It defined the scary, uncertain, murky part of quarantine, those first months where it was impossible to tell if we’d be back in school in a month or if the world would devolve into Contagion (2011). I listened to it everyday at least once, usually while I rode my bike around my neighborhood, doing laps in an effort to burn time before I could go back to sleep.
Despite all its negative associations, I still love this album. I listen to it a few times a week, and I almost never listen to records straight through. It carries a lot of baggage, but it’s a perfect album, with perfect transitions and lyrics that transcend the year I’ve put them through:
Realize I’m not getting older
But I’m not getting younger
So when Squirrel Flower announced a new record, Planet (i) (2021), and released a single and a music video, I about lost my mind. “Hurt a Fly” has a much more beefy production style—distorted vocals, a key change, a synth buried in there somewhere—but stays true to the bones of I Was Born Swimming. Ella says of the song, “I wanted to see what it was like to be a character trying to skirt around accountability.” She embodies the persona perfectly; the lyrics are words we’ve all heard from the mouths of people that let us down. I’m hoping for some more acoustic-leaning tracks on the new record as well as more character writing.
I had a friend recently give me a crash course in Nirvana, after many years of feeling like their discography was too daunting to explore on my own. I found that like so many other bands I avoided for similar reasons—The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan—they’re as good as people say they are but not as intimidating. “Lithium” is a lukewarm favorite, but I really love how the bass line outlines the A section and holds down the chorus, like a paper weight on a windy day. The song could just about fly away, but it comes back down to its opening instrumentation and form every now and then. The drums are lively, emphasizing the hi-hat. When the chorus opens up, it feels cathartic, despite the fact that there are no lyrics to resolve the repetitive, manic musings presented in the verse. Apart from the sound reasoning presented here, I’d also like to acknowledge that there’s really just nothing like Kurt Cobain and a screaming guitar.
Mannequin Pussy recently released a single and announced a new EP, Perfect (2021). I love “Drunk II”, from their last record:
I was so fucked up
I forgot we were broken up
I still love you, you stupid fuck
I like to drive with all the windows down, something I think I picked up as a frugality/sustainability measure when I lived in the desert to keep from running the AC constantly. It’s the song I most often turn on when I hit the highway, and I can barely breathe for all the wind whipping around in the cab. I love “Control” for the same reasons; it grows and grows until it seems plain wrong to try to contain it. This song is for running, driving, biking downhill. It’s for going fast.