by Jeremy Winslow (@_pbnjer)
After the band’s breakout 2018 EP Validated—which took the vulnerable and made it political against rhythmic percussion and punky guitars—and a string a singles throughout 2020 that comprise much of this new album, Groupie is back with its debut record Ephemeral. Like Validated before it, Groupie has zoomed in on its vulnerabilities to examine what they’re made of while zooming out to apply those examinations to a larger social critique. At just under forty minutes in length, Ephemeral says so much without condescending or shaming, a testament to lyricists Ashley Kossakowski and Johanna Healy for handling complicated subject matter with introspection and empathy.
Those two qualities, introspection and empathy, are reflected all over Ephemeral, but nowhere are they more prevalent than on the album’s fifth track, “Daleko.” Meaning “far away” in Polish, “Daleko” sees Groupie’s frontwomen, bassist Ashley and guitarist Johanna, singing about the separation of family caused by both immediate (the seemingly never-ending coronavirus pandemic) and far-reaching (immigration) circumstances. Largely sung in Polish and co- written with Ashley’s mom, an immigrant who fled communist Poland in the ‘80s, “Daleko” is a look at what happens when we’re uprooted from that which connects us. “Distance, time, longing, forgetfulness / This is how people are, / we must go forward / Broken heart, / But after a moment, forgetting / Why the distance / must always divide us?” The song is heartbreaking in a way that captures the exigencies of the moment while simultaneously speaking to larger themes of distance from our families due to external forces outside our control.
While Ashley and Johanna are lyrically introspective and sing in a deadpan tone across much of the album, Ephemeral also stands as a showcase of the band’s sonic range. As Groupie did with Validated previously, the quartet takes various elements of rock—including dream-pop, shoegaze, punk, and surf—and combines them into one infectious, groovy record. Take the final single and the album’s fourth track, “Thick as Glue.” The song opens with some sludgy guitar chords before a piercing squeal cuts through the beat to kick off dummer Aaron Silberstein’s catchy rhythm and Ashley’s smooth bass line. Then there’s “Poor You,” a track critical of pseudo-martyrs whose wavy rhythm belies its explosiveness. Meanwhile, “Lonely Dog” displays Groupie’s softer side, with low-key instrumentation and even more low-key singing. It all culminates in the final track “No Hands,” which sounds like it was cut from an era of early-to-mid aughts alternative rock with its very MTV-like soundscape.
What’s most interesting about the band’s prior effort, though, is how well its last line links to the intentions behind Ephemeral. On “Cannibal Wave,” the last song of the 13-minute EP Validated, the band sings, “When the moment’s unbearable, ride the feeling like a cannibal wave.” That might’ve been difficult to do on a much shorter project, but Groupie live up to and meet the task head-on with this new album, riding a myriad of unbearable feelings to tease out some sort of understanding. After all, it’s all ephemeral anyway. Nothing is built to last, but by coming to understand (and accept) the brevity of everything, we can learn to appreciate the things we have right now.