It is with one eye on my inevitable End of Year lists that I feel compelled to introduce you to Hemlocke Springs.
Maybe you're already familiar with her work.
I think I discovered her a couple of weeks ago via a review in Pitchfork for her debut EP Going... Going... GONE! but I could be mistaken. The EP has been out since late September so, in some ways, I'm a little behind the pack on this one. Especially given that I don't do TikTok, where the song 'girlfriend' has helped to bring her to a lot of peoples attention.
'girlfriend' is included here, and it's easy to see why it would have gained her so much love, but it's not the only good song on here. As was very much the case with Allie X's perfect EP of crystalline synth pop anthems, Super Sunset, so it is with Going... Going... GONE! All 21 minutes and 38 seconds of it. Every single song is an absolute pop classic. She could have put any of them out into the wild as a calling card and they would all, undoubtably, have done the job.
Part of the charm of Hemlocke Springs is the seemingly simple and effortless (but not really) synths, keyboards and electro beats set against introspective, sometimes mildly obscure, lyrics delivered via a vocal that sounds at once unworldly and astute. It's a bit like listening to diary entries from your 20s if they'd been set to a surging, upbeat and sparkling electro pop soundtrack.
The EP opens with 'gimme all ur love', a gentle entry point that feels a bit like a dreamier slice of mid period Santigold. It contrasts well with second track 'girlfriend', which hits the listener up straight away; "You said 'I want to be your girlfriend' ; it wasn't really in my plans." As the opening lyric suggests, there's both sweetness and snarl in this surging, euphoric slice of electro pop with bite. You can practically feel the kids jumping up and down to it in countless parties around the world.
The surging synth pop continues with 'heavun', a highly atmospheric slice of muscular 80s flavoured pop with a great middle break. For a few delicious seconds it sounds as though it's about to morph into Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' before it switches effortlessly back to frantic electro pop, and there's a sophistication and effortless here that is achingly cool and makes you want to listen to it again and again.
Middle track 'enknee1' is the heart of the EP, and the sweetest, dreamiest track of the 7. Initially it would be easy to write it off as a slice of charming childlike whimsy, but the initially disarming chorus increasingly drives the song, giving it a power beyond its initial beginnings. There's a real sense of our narrater being bewildered with the world, of not having got it figured out yet, and of wanting to look back to how she felt as a child. "Is there anyone? Anyone out there to love me? Anyone out there to care for?" she asks plaintively so that in the end it becomes a kind of hymn to the lonely, an anthem for the lost.
In marked contrast to the plaintive and anthemic 'enknee1' is the jagged swagger of 'pos', which stands for 'piece of shit', and which comes across like ESG at their sparse but funky best, with the occasional hint of Prince and exceptional use of the cowbell. It's self loathing and self doubt that you can dance to and the song becomes more layered and less sparse as it continues, coming to a thrilling and chugging conclusion.
'the train to nowhere' meanwhile sounds like a more nihilistic Le Tigre but becomes more melodic and shimmering as she hits the chorus("Where do you go?" "Wouldn't you like to know"). For a while the abrasiveness in the vocal disappears, only to return in the next verse. The exit moments, which include a distinctively quirky keyboard riff married to a sample of a siren on the road, round it off nicely.
We exit the world of Hemlocke Springs with title track 'going... going... GONE!' After all the surging electro pop it seems only right to end on something slower, quieter and more contemplative. A slow bop if you will, with interesting textures, especially in the drums and with some nice whispered and echoing vocals.
I cannot stress enough what an incredibly accomplished, fresh and sophisticated debut this EP is, and how much you must go off and listen to it and buy it.
