Public Radio For Eastern North Carolina 89.3 WTEB New Bern 88.5 WZNB New Bern 91.5 WBJD Atlantic Beach 90.3 WKNS Kinston 88.5 WHYC Swan Quarter 89.9 W210CF Greenville
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
US

Songs We Love: Girlpool, 'Chinatown'

When Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker harmonize, it's like a lightning bolt to the gut. As Girlpool, the two keep the instrumentation spare — just an electric guitar and bass — while infusing their songs with a striking confidence that knows we're all failures, or at least trying not to fail so often. So in "Chinatown" when they sing, "And if I told you I loved you, would you take it the wrong way?" it's raw and vulnerable, taking stock of a painfully awkward situation with open eyes.

After a self-titled cassette (recently reissued on vinyl) and a move from L.A. to Philadelphia, Girlpool is putting "Chinatown" on a forthcoming 7". Even in such a short period of time, there's growth here in the vocal phrasing and pacing, not to mention production that rounds out the trebly tinniness. Thankfully, the cheap guitar twang remains; it's an intimate quality shared in this video, which edits down homemade videos with friends and fellow musicians. It's a reminder that in our uncertainty — "I am nervous for tomorrow and today," they sing — friends are our empathetic allies.

"Chinatown" comes out March 24 on Wichita Recordings, featuring a cover of Radiator Hospital's "Cut Your Bangs" on the B-side. Homepage photo by Alice Baxley.

"Chinatown" is featured in Songs We Love.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

US
Listen to the Viking's Choice playlist, subscribe to the newsletter.