“A sonic representation of what it feels like to fall into a memory.” That’s how Nymphlord describes ‘Boardwalk Saturday Night’, the opening track of new EP, Mothers Cry And Then We Die. It’s a song which typifies the blend of dreaminess, tenderness and attitude that marks the Nymphlord style, a bittersweet sound where sincerity comes complete with fangs, and delicate emotion need not lack energy or weight. We’ve previously described how the Northern Californian singer-songwriter and producer’s music is influenced by everything from “90’s alt rock [and] misty bush-whacked trail walks” to “Britney Spears crop tops, dog bites turned scars, and dust-covered pom poms,” and the EP, out now on Lauren Records, finds these inspirations distilled down into something new.
We’ve described how ‘Bougainvillea‘ “blurs hectic energy with a downbeat emotional state to paint a subversive picture of California, drawing equally from retro surf rock and contemporary pop to undermine the sunny stereotypes,” while ‘Tryptophan’ invokes The O.C. theme to lean into a different image of the state. A smoother sound packed with wistful fondness, though the lyrics again paint a more conflicted view with their tales of holidays at home and all of the loaded pressures which come with family relations.
New paint, on the door frame
Height chart covered up but
Fist marks dent the wall yeah
Fist marks, wooden scars
I can be your buffer
At the Black Friday buffet
You can put the pain on me
A reaction to the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, ‘Stinks 4 Lyfe’ channels “every ounce of fury, frustration and vulnerability into three minutes of catharsis,” as we put it in a preview, before closer ‘6 Feet Under’ ponders mortality and persistence with a nineties revivalist pop sound. If the opening track is a representation of falling into a dream, then the entire EP is a larger recreation of the feeling. A descent into a memory of a past generation which nevertheless works through the pressing issues of the present.
When I’m six feet under
Will anyone care that I’m gone
Six feet under
Will anyone still play this song
When I’m six feet under
And maggots feast on my old guitar
And on my left arm
I bet I won’t care
That I’m gone
Mothers Cry And Then We Die. is out now via Lauren Records and available from the Nymphlord Bandcamp page.
