This’ll be short, since I wrote about googly eyes at length not long ago, and two of the six tracks on this EP were part of that post. But Starlet is her first proper release, on Tove Lo’s record label, and it’s absolutely worth checking out. Here’s one of the new tracks, “Brand New Bitch”:
On this EP, googly eyes somehow manages to be maximalist and understated — these songs are all short (all but one are under 2:30) and they all feel like the beginning of something, finishing so soon that it’s impossible not to start again. In another artist’s hands, these songs would stretch exhaustively over 5 minutes. It’s one of the things I loved when I wrote about when I first heard her music last month. It feels like every song is exploding with ideas.
“Waste of Conversation” is a perfect example of this. There is so much going on in this song – musical patterns and melodies and textures, and they exist for exactly right amouint of time:
The last song, “Starlet Sellout, Pageant Princess” is a proper ballad, subdued from a pacing and a production standpoint:
Here’s a piece on googly eyes’ Substack about the record, there’s a pretty great origin story for her signing, plus a little about the record itself:
Starlet’s 6 songs span 6 different emotions: pain, hope, confidence, affection, disappointment, and loneliness. Aside from the singles: I think Steady was my favorite to make and has the biggest heart of googly, Waste of Conversation was the hardest, SSPP was the fastest, and Brand New Bitch felt the most sonically exciting.
Check it out, and check out my prior post on googly eyes for more of her earlier music.
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