Tender Perennial is the project of Olympia, WA’s Alyssa Giannini. New tape Short Songs About Longing is a selection of highlights from their 2018 demo, and the latest cassette release from Reflective Tapes.
Tender Perennial specializes in gentle lo-fi pop songs, just guitar and Giannini’s voice, recorded DIY at home without a mic stand, just a borrowed 4-track and the help of a friend. Short Songs About Longing is just as the title suggests, five quietly earnest songs about pining for people and places. But as the project’s name suggests, there’s another side to this vulnerability, persisting through whatever life throws like a small but hardy perennial plant.
Opener ‘oops I did it again’ feels like a little wistful daydream of a song, Giannini playing subtle guitar as they sing “feeling pretty listless and uninspired, looking for a break in my routine.” But not every song is coloured by this ennui. While ‘appetency’ may sound soft and sad, it’s actually a pretty happy song, a tender recollection of connection in the springtime. “drag me out of this house, tell me anything you please,” gianni sings, “daffodils are pushing up the wet leaves”
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‘Silience’ is perhaps the song on which the sense of longing is approached most directly, full of reminiscence about a friend who has moved away, in body if not in mind, Giannini waiting for an opportunity to reveal their true feelings.
I will wait for my chance and I will take it
to tell you how, how I feel about you now
Closer ‘Delivered’ is the EP’s longest track by quite some distance, but doesn’t break the hush of the other songs. Even the guitar sounds muffled to a whisper as Giannini describes getting “quiet” as they watch the twinkling lights of Portland, driving home the message of Tender Perennial: you don’t need to shout to say something important.
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Short Songs About Longing is out now and you can get it on Reflective Tapes or via the Tender Perennial Bandcamp page.