Girlpool’s debut full-length album entitled Before The World Was Big via Wichita Recordings is the much-anticipated follow up to their self-titled EP released in 2014. The drummer-less duo, Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker, recorded the full-length with Kyle Gilbride ( Swearin’, Waxahatchee). The compelling duo having been playing together for the past couple of years and open themselves up to new indie-pop ideas, mainly composed of emotional intensity. Each song offers a slightly different feel, from the live atmosphere of “Cherry Picking” or the heavy indie experimentation used throughout “ Ideal World”, each song stands alone. After moving from the West coast to the East coast to write the new record, the 19-year-old duo combine similar ideas of indie, lo-fi and punk to blend and solidify their unique sound. Girlpool offers listeners pleasing melodies and harmonies not only in their instrumentation but also with their stunning vocal patterns.
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Before The World Was Big has a strong underlying vulnerable tone that is met with shoe-gaze and downtempo-punk but in addition, the duo still manage to experiment and sprinkle in some added spunk. Topics throughout the album focus on themes of struggle, specifically with growing up and coming to terms with the huge world we live in that is always growing and changing. To go along with these unclear issues of growing up, Girlpool couples their lyricism with a scared and frightened undertone that contributes even more to their vulnerability, that makes their music so unique.
Girlpool thoroughly reminisces about the “good old days” and how those days have changed and are lost; however, is it that those days and places in our childhood have changed or are we all changing? With that exploration in mind, there is a sense of sentimentalism when referencing childhood feelings contrasting the struggle with coming of age. This idea of growing up is mainly paired with feelings of anger and death. In conclusion, Girlpool maintained their voice in regards to their opinion on society. The duo concentrates on ideas of people being forced into stereotypes based not only on sexism, but also racism. One last idea to note about Before The World Was Big is the struggle and question of love and relationships while getting older. The raw intensity of the vulnerable duo creates an amazing debut album that, in my opinion, is going to rank as one of 2015’s best albums. Check out their album on Spotify, iTunes, SoundCloud, etc.
