Blondshell – Violins
On her latest album as Blondshell, Sabrina Teitelbaum is more focused than ever on how her sense of self has evolved
Diverting from her practice of literal lyricism, Sabrina Teitelbaum's main focus on Violins, her latest album as Blondshell, was to expand her writing method. Throughout her gorgeous third LP, she routinely returns to metaphor to drive her thematic storytelling. Knotted is a quietly cut-throat example of Teitelbaum's evolution in style: ‘It’s always knotted / When you make a promise you keep me on the hook / And if I’m honest / I’m in your pocket’. Through guitar feedback and beautiful backing vocals, Teitelbaum explores the devastating way she stays attached to someone who keeps putting others before her in a relationship.
Although thematically similar to Blondshell’s back catalogue in its exploration of past relationships, Violins' lens is more focused than ever on how Teitelbaum's sense of self has evolved. Mid-album, Two Fried is a sly way for Teitelbaum to process how she’s come to like the way her body looks, while New Age Trojan Horse opens with dueling guitars, taking a stand against grown men's inability to understand periods. Violins is not so much a reinvention as it is a dreamy evolution of a skilled singer-songwriter moving into a new style of writing.
Listen to: Lucky, Sea Legs, New Age Trojan Horse