They say timing is everything, and it’s moments like today when that couldn’t feel more true to me. If you’ll rewind with me for a moment, you’ll recall that last week I wrote an article covering pnkdrco’s move on! which came out this Monday. What you may not know is that the article was written the previous Sunday, with the video not being recorded until that Thursday. This is not an uncommon timeline, and is generally an innocuous detail about how the back of of a blog works but this time was different, because this time without my notice a new pnkdrco song came out that Monday, only for me to post about her older song exactly one week later with zero reference to it. Now, despite that being a little bit of bad etiquette it wouldn’t be reason alone for me to go back and cover an artist twice in such close proximity, but unfortunately for me (and fortunately for all of you) her new release for what it’s worth is so damn good that it would be criminal for me not to share.

I mentioned pretty point-blank in my previous article that part of what I loved about pnkdrco was that her sound was defined by hyperpop with an incredibly clean feel to it. for what it’s worth is no different in that regard, featuring swaths of crunchy, thick synth chords beneath her melancholic vocal delivery and a drop section more choppy than me cutting onions (because they made my eyes hurt and I don’t want to anymore [that joke was so lame what the hell]). Within its 1:33 runtime this sound palette creates the shades used in painting an incredibly vivid picture of loneliness and isolation. It’s a very specific, and intense breed of loneliness that I think most of us can find particularly relatable. Not to bring up the forbidden topic we’re all sick of, but 5 years removed from the worst of it this song managed to capture a feeling that feels directly in parallel with how I remember feeling as a 17 year old in the middle of pandemic lockdown, which as far as I’m concerned was one of the loneliest times on the planet for just about everyone. With talk of running out of strength and desperately needing to see her friends we’re dragged into that claustrophobic pit of feelings, only to be shot right out as the drop sets in and we’re plunged into the chaos of stuttery saw wave synths and square wave arpeggios blipping in and out of focus. It’s fast paced contrast to what only seconds ago was a mellowed out introspection, and it carries us on manic wings to the conclusion of the song where we’re left only with our thoughts and whatever cool rocks you have in your pockets.

It’s a really interesting storytelling piece. On one hand you can just throw some things to the side as “standard song formatting”, but I’m gonna go full English teacher on you here and say with the general down of the intro, the all time low of the chorus, and the all time high of the drop, it’s almost akin to real time experiencing that manic feeling of isolation within the song itself. Is that deeper than intended? Well… yeah probably. The curtains are probably just blue on this one, no symbolism, but for what it’s worth 50% of art is doing cool shit by accident, so who cares if that was really the goal here. As a closing note I want to say that while trying to rush out this article amidst my obscene number of projects to do for school now I came to an understanding as to how a song like this comes to be. Immediately your brain may go to teenage angst or an outlet for mental health, but dear reader I assure you it’s neither, as according to her Spotify bio pnkdrco is from Florida. And if I lived in Florida, I’d be pretty bummed too. So go give her a follow and stream this one so she can eventually not have to be in Florida. Thanks.