ALBUM REVIEW: girl in red releases debut album 'if i could make it go quiet'
Words: Jett Tattersall
Image: Jonathan Kise
Having barely cut her teeth in the industry and Marie Ulven's name, bittersweet lyrics, and eclectic melodies circumnavigated the globe and into hearts, sing-alongs, and conciliatory break-up mixtapes. In the few short years since Ulven, under her most recognisable moniker girl in red, released her debut single, ‘i wanna be your girlfriend’ she’s had us singing along in solidarity "I don't wanna be your friend, I wanna be your bitch" to her unrequited heart. Ulven has been crowned a gay icon, a trailblazer, and the ideal poster-girl for a generation so incredibly switched-on and self-aware because, well because we’ve left them no other choice.
Ulven’s much-anticipated debut LP if i could make it go quiet opens with the jangly big-sound punk-rock tea-time get-go of 'Serotonin', a joyful pit-dance of a song written about Ulven’s life-long wrestle with anxiety and depression. ‘Serotonin’ and its huge popularity is a beautiful indication of humanity's innate search for silver linings. And that for this girl in red, and her army of peers, genres, and labels are a thing of the past.
A phenomenal songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Ulven’s vocal dexterity in ‘Did You Come’ is where the pure genius of the collection lies vivisected open. Ulven’s vocals open the track as a steadfast protagonist abruptly parried by the growl of her jealous antagonist. “You should know better now than to fuck it up and fuck around” A cheer-squad of Ulven’s chant the chorus, but the song truly comes into its own with Ulven's Jiminy Cricket-esque conscience tying it together in the bridge.
At the album's mid-point ‘Midnight Love’ plays out as a low-lit, low-fi confessional, perfect for wallowing in the unrequited love of your booty-call status. “In this light, I swear I’m blind / In this light, I swear you’re mine” On the lyrics alone, the backed-up tattoo parlour queues to etch Ulven's pros into wrists, hips, and hairlines are inevitable. Melodically, the genius of ‘midnight love’'s musical composition is how Ulven has constructed it with such tenderness whilst brazenly defying a genre or style of any kind.
Taking us by the hand and sliding behind the wheel 'I'll Call You Mine' is Ulven's 'summer of love' pop anthem. The ultimate song to sing into your lover's mouth, your rear-vision mirror, your best friend's face, or silently to the back of your classroom crush's head. Ulven's lazy-in-love lyrics purr “break me down and I’ll call you mine” as she romances the classic road trip narrative supported by a perfectly executed cacophony of summer sound.
Ten tracks in and the album ends on the eleventh with the instrumental 'it would feel like this', an array of sound that has us prepping for a weep in the first three bars of the intro alone. Faces fold as the musical arrangement swells, and though we know it won’t be gentle, we're ready. We've come this far. Speaking of the album's core Ulven epitomises “if i could make it go quiet is me simply trying to understand what the fuck is going on”.
'it would feel like this' comes to a whispered close, we dare not exhale for fear our heart will tumble out with it. Then… 'Serotonin' loops us right back to the top of Ulven's wondrously constructed rollercoaster. Staring headlong into Ulven’s melodious psyche, we're gripping tight to the safety bar, beaming wide as the guitars lead us into another of many plays to come.
if i could make it go quiet is out now. You can buy and stream here.
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