by Niccolo Dante Porcello (@chromechompsky)
“Petri Dish,” the first single from Horse Girl’s upcoming record on Anxiety Pop, is a blissful and fuzzed out few minutes of exorcism, showcasing the Salem, MA’s trio’s serious ability to write hooky songs that vibe with current styles without being trite in their execution. Coming in at a relatively brief 3-minutes, “Petri Dish” presents Horse Girl in their jangliest form to date — the main riff is reminiscent of so many excellent records of late, but finds a fresh tone when paired with the prescient lyricism of the song. As such, the song details a set of parameters surrounding self-evaluation: “But it all comes back today, what can i say to you in a spinning wheel, say to you I’m a burning steel/ say to you in a petri dish/ say to you in how’d we end up like this?/ and I'm so sorry/ that I’m alone.”
Between the lyrics and Horse Girl’s scuzzy pummeling, “Petri Dish” comes off as an distinct, and excellent, meditation on one of the most relatable trains of thought: the evaluation of others opinions of ones’ self. The vocabulary of ‘petri dish’ is significant and wonderful — it evokes a specific feeling of being trapped in a very particular set of circumstances, or around a very particular set of characters. Like in a petri dish, surroundings are filled with similar bacteria, viruses, organisms, or whatever is being examined. Indeed, its not an uncommon feel surrounded by similar creatures without being able to fully communicate with them. Horse Girl does an excellent job of expressing a similar sentiment over representative instrumentation — the chaos of Horse Girl’s guitars crash against the drums in an intensely pleasurable manner that hearkens to some of the best parts of the post Radiator Hospital-y zeitgeist in a seriously worthwhile manner. The combination of these factors results in "Petri Dish: being an omnipotent blend of factors and an ultimately excellent song.
Horse Girl’s upcoming album Been Better is due out 7/14 via Anxiety Pop.
Upcoming Shows:
7/06 - New York, NY
7/07 - Philadelphia, PA
7/08 - Washington, DC
7/10 - Salem, MA
7/14 - Boston, MA