by Sara Mae (@scary_mae)
It’s been said that pop music becomes more prominent in times of upheaval. Gillian Medford of IAN SWEET has gone through upheavals of her own, and on her new album SUCKER, she is interested in the life-affirming nature of pop music. She says, “I think the indie rock world really feeds off trauma. If you’re not going through something terrible, people are like, ‘What’s the story?’” IAN SWEET’s last album, Show Me How You Disappear, is where Medford tackled some really difficult topics, but now she is here to tell a different story.
A long way from her days as a basement show kid in Boston, Massachusetts, IAN SWEET’s new record SUCKER insists on being the work of a pop auteur. Powerpuff girl drum machines take over from an era of drum kits muted with old leather wallets. “Bloody Knees” holds the stakes of familiar wedding vows– an “in sickness or in health” mentality. There’s a euphoric ending that reaches towards the scope of Perfume Genius’ “Slip Away.” Medford sings, “What if I die with this song in my head / and I never get to sing it?”
A synth forward “Emergency Contact” is somewhere between Jay Som’s Anak Ko and Beach House. The same could be said stylistically about the penultimate song “Slowdance,” but with insistent verses breaking open to that more mellow sound. Acoustic guitar is a noticeable production shift on “Clean.” Here is a brief moment of explicit pain, as opposed to the sheen of yearning that coats the whole album. “Now I behave like a body of water / I lay down as still as can be / Wait for you to get clean / Get clean.”
The titular song “Sucker” finds its footing in rock foundations, a thick, oscillating riff at the beginning, Medford singing, “I’m on the couch, floor, ceiling / I’m so far from healing / Cuz i’m a sucker for the pain / and the heartbreak / I’m a sucker / I’m a sucker,” a chorus pedal outro that mirrors the melody of the song. This and “Fight” are standouts on the album, the latter roping you into singing along by the end. “Hard” is like in Sofia Coppola’s Virgin Suicides when Styx is playing and Trip and Lux are slow dancing and the balloons fall. Even though it was Styx, it could’ve been this song.
Medford says, “Sometimes I get imposter syndrome when I write poppier music, because of who people assume I actually am as a musician, and where they’d like me to fit in in the ‘indie’ space.” There’s a misconception that DIY rock singers who go pop don’t have the vocals for it— Michelle Zauner is one vocalist who this claim has been levied at (and this writer begs to differ). Jillian Medford is a storyteller, and uses her instrument accordingly. She whispers when she delivers lyrics that are secrets, intimacies. Her vocals are characteristically willowy, with spare shrieks that reach a bratty and strong high pitch. She wails, layering vocals on “Your Spit” – “why don’t you [kiss me like you mean it]?” She wails on “Hard,” repeating the last lines of the album over and over. “I hear the power lines / Buzzing through the trees / They’re singin and hummin for me.” IAN SWEET’s previous records had zanier, stranger sounds on them. This new record is more fully realized, polished, radiant.