The project’s first EP, Bug Garden is what Quint describes as a five song goodbye to his mother, who passed away when he was in high school. However, as hinted above, Quint hasn’t followed convention by approaching grief and loss with purely sad songs, instead creating rich and varied indie pop that captures a whole gamut of emotions. This range and balance proves to be the true strength of the release, drawing not just upon the sorrow related to his mother but the joy too.

Opening track ‘Hemlock’ sets the tone, an upbeat indie pop song prone to eddies of hurried release, Quint following the current of his feelings across the both a flat meandering flow and white water washes. Similarly, ‘Stepped On’ has two distinct tempos, slow earnest lulls giving way to a breathless rattle that brings to mind the earnest wordiness of Kimya Dawson.

But none of this is to say the EP shrinks away from the difficult moments. ‘Hospice’ sees Quint confront his mother’s illness directly, imagining himself as a worm cut in two, cleaved by grief in the hospice chapel. The gentle acoustic track ‘Mother Moth’ is similarly direct, a song about the promise of heaven that embraces an almost Elverumian tone of plainspoken thoughts.

Final track ‘Compost’ feels like a distillation of everything that has come before. It’s a beautiful mix of carefree and feeling, wistful and celebratory and glad despite everything. Quint describes ‘Compost’ as a song about “letting go and moving on, while still preserving the memory of someone inside you,” and the idea is captured perfectly in the track. Puddle-Cuddle in no way downplays or underestimates the implications of loss, but appears determined to portray the other side of the relationship—the joy of knowing and being known, of loving and being loved.

Cover Photo by Nina Wilder, text by India M

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Song list:

Options – Waiting
2nd Grade – Favorite Song
Alexander – Going to Sleep
Ryan Van Gonten – Fabrique
Haunted Continents – What Were You Born For?
Weakened Friends – Blue Again
Shybaby – Lazy Hazy
Frankie Valet – April
Primo! – You’ve Got a Million
Hypoluxo – Kentucky Smooth
Basement Revolver – Knocking
Dead Painters – Output
HALEY – Infinite Pleasure Part 2
Doe – Heated
Ing – Dust
Benjamin Shaw – Terrible Feelings!
internet boy crush – ghost friend
lowly loverboi – Dumb Phone
Dead Tooth – Liars
Kin Hana – You
Bodega – The Truth is Not Punishment
The Cordial Sins – Not Enough
Indoor Cats – Fun 2
Upstairs – Trust the Process
Sabriel’s Orb – Holding
John Atkinson – Bakwaves // Rye
Fanclub – Leaves
The Chairman Dances – Acme Parking Garage
Con Davison – Talk
Ivy Dye – Diminish
Elizabeth Owens – I Long
The Last Bison – Don’t Look Away
Our Fastest Typist – It’s Nice Outside, but My Head is Killing Me

You can find all of our monthly round-up posts here, and our complete array of mixtapes here.

The post September 2018 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

And that’s a pretty good summary of ‘Fun 2’, the song that we’re very pleased to unveil today. As the title suggests, it’s a bright and peppy pop song that pairs chirpy acoustic guitar with a languidly catchy electric guitar line. The energy from Heading West is maintained, though there is something of a newfound clarity to the vocal style, the lo-fi sensibilities toned back somewhat.

The result is a playful song that escalates across its run time, eventually growing into a sparkling, almost celebratory sound. In keeping with this, the vocals could be taken as either wry or heartfelt, the not-quite twee tone somewhere between ironic and earnest, or perhaps both at once—an attempt at serious communication, though with self-deprecation always just around the corner.

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