Girlpool – Forgiveness (2022) [FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz]

Forgiveness is the brand new full-length Girlpool album, which finds the duo embracing weirdo-pop decadence without sacrificing the poetic curiosity that has always made their music so absorbing. Just like they did for What Chaos Is Imaginary, Harmony and Avery each wrote their Forgiveness songs separately, then came together to decide how to present them in a style that felt representative of what excites and inspires them now. This time, the process resulted in their slickest and most ambitious music to date, filled with idiosyncratic and provocative gestures that simultaneously support and complicate the emotionally intricate material. With it’s unique blend of introspective earworms and surreal party music, Forgiveness reaches beyond the loosely sketched parameters of “indie rock,” challenging any preconceived notions of what a Girlpool album can or should be. “Faultline” the album’s first single, is an effective introduction to the world of Forgiveness; the notion of straddling a fault line feels somewhat indicative of Forgiveness on the whole. These songs investigate the always-shifting boundaries between a number of elementally human concepts: pain and pleasure, sex and love, reality and delusion, insecurity and confidence, grief and growth. To support their vision of a sound at the intersection of Hollywood futurism and post-grunge sincerity, Girlpool enlisted help from producer Yves Rothman (Yves Tumor, Miya Folick).

Over the past decade, it’s been fascinating to hear the metamorphosis of Girlpool. Back in 2012, friends Avery Tucker and Harmony Tividad were Los Angeles high schoolers playing at the all-ages venue The Smell. Two years later they were hollering on their self-titled EP about the frustrations of being young women in a world not evolving as fast as you want, and in 2015 their debut album, Before the World Was Big, highlighted the chilling charm of their insistent voices united like twins. With each subsequent record, the sound has become more polished without being any less spartan. In 2019, the two wrote songs individually for the first time, for What Chaos Is Imaginary, as Tucker was finding his literal new voice after gender-transitioning. The duo’s latest is a work of great beauty underscored by the message that life is both sides of a coin: as wonderful as it can be, there is always the threat of pain—by someone who loves you, to yourself, to those you care about, within acts of complicitness and misguided good intentions. Even as the songs are tender sounding, the imagery can be violent. “Do you even want me if I have to ask? Break it to me gently with your fingers up my ass,” Tividad sings on “Nothing Gives Me Pleasure,” its glitchy drums sounding like there’s a ghost in the machine. She has said that the song “was written during a time when I was working so hard to get someone specific to love and recognize me. On the path to doing that, I diluted myself….” With Tividad reaching a high-as-the-sky falsetto, “Junkie,” and its declaration “I’m a junkie for you,” could be read as romantic—or a dangerous act of self harm. “Every day it’s Friday night/ I hold my body like a butcher knife” goes the opener of “Faultline,” its music as dreamy and easygoing as the lyrics are tense. Goth-ish “Afterlife” warns “I know the devil sleeps/ Because he sleeps with me”; with echoes of both Evanescence and Billie Eilish, it could be an underdog radio hit. Throughout, hearing Tucker’s emerging voice sing his story is enthralling. “I was young for a girl/ I was tough/ Now I’m figuring out/ How you see me now,” he sings on the bittersweet acoustic “See Me Now.” “I don’t want to overthink/ The things I hope her friends don’t say.” His hushed, husky sound against Tucker’s light falsetto, on songs like folky “Violet” and fragile “Love333″—on which the two trade verses and reunite on a chorus—is a whole new magical harmony. “Dragging My Life Into a Dream” boasts an almost Carpenters-esque chorus; “Country Star” wows with a Siouxsie-style drum beat, chilled ’80s dance-floor synth and a fog filter on Tucker’s vocals. A slice of ominous slowcore, “Lie Love Lullaby” lets the music drop away for dramatic effect and serves up visceral evocation: “Twist me over the sink … What’s a lie love lullaby/ When we sing it every night?” – Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist:
1-01. Girlpool – Nothing Gives Me Pleasure (03:48)
1-02. Girlpool – Lie Love Lullaby (03:20)
1-03. Girlpool – Violet (03:28)
1-04. Girlpool – Junkie (03:34)
1-05. Girlpool – Dragging My Life Into a Dream (03:11)
1-06. Girlpool – Faultline (04:11)
1-07. Girlpool – Light Up Later (02:21)
1-08. Girlpool – Country Star (04:11)
1-09. Girlpool – Butterfly Bulletholes (03:57)
1-10. Girlpool – Afterlife (03:11)
1-11. Girlpool – See Me Now (03:09)
1-12. Girlpool – Love333 (03:09)

Download:

mqs.link_Girlp00lF0rgiveness202224882.rar

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