Perfectly executed singer-songwriter single that would do NUMBERS if it came from someone in the boygenius extended universe. Funny, witty, disarming, and more than kinda downcast ( “we promised that we’d live together in a tree/and watch the world end/but you got a boyfriend”)
Apr 12, 2024
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The first single from Winter Boyfriend from the upcoming album set a, frankly, very different note. 'anx/bodies' is an outlier for us, musically and lyrically, but when putting the final touches to the album it was one of the songs that people seemed instinctively to engage with if they weren't broadly invested in our main thing, essentially indie/indie-punk made by a would-be emo band. At the very least it provoked a reaction.
It's a song inspired by a very specific series of events but is not specifically autobiographical. Outside of the world of this song i am much less forward about sex. I enjoy being 'too much' with friends but i really don't want it going anywhere my family might hear it. Repression is fun! I often wonder if that's similar to what actors feel when doing nudity or whatever. It's a case of, "I don't want to know you've seen me experience that?" Anyway, honesty can help in art, but also maybe so too does a little internal repression.
It was written about a memory of going to a university disco, arriving at the club where everyone was looking hot and cool, and i suddenly becoming very aware of my inability to be calm. It is essentially about over-stimulation and amorousness and the confusion of that smashing like a wrecking ball through any semblance of chill i might have had.
The verse bass riff is really old, easily over 10 years old. I wrote it for a different project, a Death From Above 1979 rip-off thing, and my pal Martin played bass, while i sang and drummed. The song was unremarkable but the riff was cool. There was no way i wasn't keeping it. Also, it explains why it's the only song that uses a fuzz bass tone. Yet.
I have no idea when i came up with the guitar riff but it's one of my favourite parts i've written. It's rythmic and a little bit dissonant, but i think the G# implies an E Major chord, making it A minor natural (sorry music theory experts, probably butchering this).
I was also unsure if i could allow myself to write the chorus which used power chords. It always feels too basic. But it worked in the context of the song. I finished it years ago aside from a few lyrical tweaks and the introduction sound (chord played, tremolo arm depressed as it fades out, recorded and reversed). Also when mixing the song my references were very different and included a lot of 00s and 10s music, including bands that have been grandfathered into the whole 'indie-sleaze' thing, and it made me realise the second verse needed, nay demanded!, a cowbell and some percussion (the other percussion is drumming on glass bottles fyi).
I feel like 'anx/bodies', and the song that follows it, 'on our way home', are two sides of the same coin. One uptight, repressed yet explosive, and the other unrelenting, desperate and flailing. You could almost imagine the latter being later in the same night, getting existential when worse-for-wear. More on that one later.
Jun 19, 2024
I have a working theory that any song over five minutes is almost always really fucking good. Not a single melodic second is wasted in this one. No words are spoken, yet so much is said.
Mar 8, 2025
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What a wonderful way to end the album ‘the record,’ especially on vinyl where it has a locked groove so the song keeps playing the last note indefinitely until you stop it yourself. First time you experience it it’s eerie, but I think in the scheme of the last two lines of the song is makes sense: “I can't feel it yet / But I am waiting all morning...” — almost as if the note is being held out long enough for the singer to believe that it true, or that it will be true one day. Any song written by Lucy Dacus is 10/10 for me as she manages to bring a depth & transparency to anything she touches.
May 5, 2024
Top Recs from @dotcompuff
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And then stick around for the headliner so you “get your money’s worth” only to see the headliner open their set with like 25 minutes of the most “gets no hoes” music you’ve heard in a minute
Feb 17, 2024
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and you can’t just jump to she/her without stopping at she/they like “no it’s this one i’m sure”
Nov 21, 2024
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We all know airports and flying are kind of an iteration of Hell at this point, so why not make travel fun? Comes with a bunk bed and feels quintessentially American, but the good parts (traveling through the country, power of industry, pre-made food). The coffee tastes like nothing, though.
Apr 12, 2024