BLONDSHELL - CRASHING MY CAR AND CARING

Prior to this summer, I had stopped caring about music. I didn't take my headphones out with me very often, and if I did I just used the noise cancelling but nothing was playing(I still do this sometimes). I don't really know exactly why I felt this way, sometimes it felt too distracting but then other times it wouldn't be distracting enough - so I watched more TV or listened to podcasts to fill the void.

I can't really pinpoint exactly when I stopped caring about music but I have to credit Blondshell and her new album If You Asked for A Picture as one of the reasons I started again.

I listened to a few of her songs pretty religiously over 2024, Salad was top of my Spotify wrapped and Olympus wasn't far behind. Her self-titled debut as a whole was really impressive, I'd have it on in the car a lot, for me it's the sort of music that makes me wish I started a band. It's cathartic and angry and encourages you to get mad about the way people act and the way things are.

I'll admit that If You Asked For A Picture is not a groundbreaking or disruptive piece of work, but that's not the point. It gave me a sense of direction at a time where I felt uninterested in anything.

I don't even think I listened to the whole album for a few weeks after it was released as I was completely stuck on the first track Thumbtack - this might actually go down as my song of the year. It's simple, just a guitar mostly and some layered vocals, I think I had been overcomplicating my music taste, bombarding myself with so much variety that I had become kind of tired of navigating music in general, so such an easy track to listen to felt refreshing. 23's a Baby is another one that I rinsed when it came out, her lyrics are almost funny, they're insulting and brutally honest, nothing too complicated or cringe.

New Century Hall - Possibly my favourite live venue in Manchester

I got a ticket to see her at New Century Hall a week or so before the night so was non stop listening in the time prior to the gig and was getting really excited about finding a good outfit and heading there solo. But! I crashed my car that afternoon so went into a bit of a self deprecating loser spiral. I was fairly adamant about not going to the gig to be honest because I thought I wouldn't have the capacity to enjoy it. My mum n dad encouraged me to go though so I biked over in the rain, missed two songs but made it, got a beer and settled in. And yeah, it was insane, her voice was really strong and she just looked so relaxed on stage. Her band were laughing along with her, just a fabric backdrop and like they'd all been out for the day casually and ended up on stage. Change live was a pretty impeccable experience, I hadn't really paid much attention to it before, I had the same feeling with Arms.

It sort of feels like some of Blondshell's songs were written with the live performance in mind (I may be stating the obvious here), so the studio versions don't necessarily make much of an impact at first. But you're sort of forced to listen to an unpolished version of a song when it's live so you appreciate its components more, so I'm really glad I got to see her perform. And the act of going did stop me reaching the depths of the downward spiral I was worried about reaching.

It felt really nice to be in a crowd.

I keep feeling like I should give some sort of advice at the end of each thing I write for some reason, as if I've experienced something profound but I don't really have anything for this one. Maybe just go see more live music, and buy the merch, it keeps bands and artists alive and around.