Blondshell and Bully team up for new introspective rager, ‘Docket’
Following the release of her stellar self-titled debut album last year, Blondshell is back and in a typically witty fashion. Solidifying her position as the mouthpiece of a new lost generation, who else would dare to sing about going back to your loser ex, lusting for self-destruction, or, in this case, the subtle ways we stay?
Blondshell has a way of turning my texts into songs. Not in an embarrassing, overly-trending way, and not even in a way that is too painfully Gen-Z or fleeting. Instead, she seems to manage to crack into inner worlds, merging real introspection with the kind of silly, self-deprecating way. Her works sound like the kind of cutting jokes we all make about ourselves, attempting to veil deep-seated worries about the way we are or how we handle things with a light giggle and a big dose of sarcasm.
And then there are the texts you send your best friend only in the dead of the night when things have gotten dark. In these moments, on tracks like ‘Olympus’ or ‘Dangerous’, Sabrina Mae Teitelbaum doesn’t shy away from staring straight at a reflection she doesn’t like too much, tackling incidents of real weakness or revelations that maybe she’s the problem.
On her latest track, ‘Docket’, she sits somewhere in between. “But I’m scared of the touching / I have someone at home / And I want his body more / When he leaves me alone,” she sings in the first verse, already getting her fingers into a distinct feeling and attempting to pull the strings apart. The signature of a Blondshell song comes when the chorus hits, the ante is upped, and her booming indie sound tosses the whole knotted mess to the ground and becomes content with just kicking the feeling around and seeing what comes with it.
Throughout the track, introspection and acceptance are battling it out. “My worst nightmare is mе,” she says pretty plainly, but it’s in more of a shrugging ‘what are you gonna do about it?’ way. That kind of nonchalance paired with deeply considered thoughts and feelings in the lyricism makes Blondshell so hooking. Capturing an internal monologue at its realist without fear of looking like the bad guy, she just says it how it is.
This time round, she’s teamed up with Bully, another fan-favourite indie artist who dropped a great album last year too. They’re a match made in heaven as their two voices combine, Blondshell with her subtle New York drawl while Bully brings a slight country twang.
Coming together to tackle a tale of subtle infidelity and begging the question of whether it’s wrong to fancy other people while tied up in a relationship, it offers no answers. Instead, with its boisterous guitars and endless catchiness, Blondshell and Bully provide a companion piece for the dark and shameful feelings we all have somewhere.
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