Which Girlpool song are you most fond of? Which version of Girlpool are you most fond of? Even in just shy of a decade as a band, the Los Angeles duo of Avery Tucker and Harmony Tividad have undergone profound transformation, from the wide-eyed, harmony-heavy folk-punk of their early records to the lush, independent rock and pop sounds of their new album, Tucker’s identity as a member of the band and his singing voice were affected by the vocalist and guitarist coming out as trans in 2017.
Girlpool had to deal with changes in both art and life. The duo told Rolling Stone that balancing their past and present sounds was something they talked about every day. Tucker had to bridge the gap between two different sounds and also between himself and someone else.
I feel honored to have had access to my past self, and I can look back on my history and see it as a geography. Tucker wrote in a 2020 Them essay that being conditioned as a woman let him in on experiences he couldn’t have understood as acis man. Although I experience a lot of pain and confusion around this truth, I know that it has brought me a lot of self-awareness. I am learning to love my own path and honor it.
There is one quality that has defined Girlpool over the years, and that is courage. Eric Bennett wrote of Forgiveness for Paste that there is no way to know where Girlpool are going. If they have it their way there will never be. It was true to the end, as the band unexpectedly announced their break-up in August, and later said on their website, “It’s been a beautiful nine years new things in store for both of us.”
With Girlpool’s run coming to an end as their final tour is currently ongoing, Paste is celebrating Tucker and Tividad’s journey. We picked their 10 best tracks.
10. “Pretty”
It’s not easy to follow on the tracklist of What Chaos Is Imaginary, but Tividad did it when she was just starting out as a writer. The track succeeds not only as a hooky and dynamic strummer, but also as a reflection of young heartbreak, capturing the way losing your first love can feel like losing the very concept of love itself, though it is often later revealed to be a blessing in disguise. Tividad spends its jangly verse adrift and down on herself, but she breaks out of that scheme and gains a better perspective.
The title track from Before the World Was Big is a textbook early Girlpool track. A teenaged Tucker and Tividad interlock their rudimentary guitar and bass lines to tell an imaginative and honest coming-of-age tale. The narrator in the song is digging in their heels while change comes to their internal and external worlds. Girlpool spend this track pining for it, even before they’ve truly left it, because there is a guileless vulnerability to the band’s Before the World era, reflected in both its forthright songwriting and bare-bones instrumentation. As the song builds to its climax, Tucker and Tividad harmonize as if to emphasize their shared desire for simpler times.
While the more superficial circumstances of our lives are always changing, our innermost feelings tend to remain the same. Girlpool remains open about the pain of change, as well as the longing for days gone by, in the third single from Forgiveness. The two tracks are very different in many ways. “Dragging My Life into a Dream” is lush and layered, with Tividad’s perfectly placed backing vocals acting in service of the intimate singer/songwriter concept at its center. Over gentle guitar strums, Tucker sings about an ex he is surprised to find himself missing so much, longing not only for that person, but also for the person he was in love with. I need my innocence back. The result is a song that is perfect for a house party in the hills as it is quiet and longing hours after.
The Powerplant cut is one of the best examples of how Girlpool bridge the gap between Before the World and their later output. The duo deliver a hooky serenade to someone they care about, who only has eyes for someone they can’t trust, warning them not to get their heart broken and offering up. Tucker and Tividad’s dynamic pop-rock instrumentation, drums, organ, piano and all, serves as the bracing accompaniment to their thoughtful, lovesick lyricism and signature vocal harmony, which pair with heavy, distorted guitars and thrumming bass in the song’s soaring choruses. Even though you fear that the strings will overflow, they feel like your own heart beating.
One of the best vocal performances in the band’s catalog can be found on What Chaos Is Imaginary’s “Hire.” Tucker was adjusting to his new vocal range while recording the band’s third album, but he thinks the more he sings, the better he feels about it. He told Them that the more he sings, the more he sings, and that the sense of spreading one’s wings bleeds into the song itself. Quietly confident electric guitar and drums accompany Tucker as he unfurls his new voice, singing about anticipation, and hope of acceptance, yet finding a fragile peace in the moment. His voice soars in the chorus-less track, as he evokes a sense of restless retrospect, still with a sense of humor, as he sings, “I can’t let live be, I’m high scoring memory, just to look at quiet history.” The hard-rocking climax is one of the most satisfying moments of the album.
The final song of Girlpool’s Powerplant era feels like the duo are straining to see past even the horizon. It is the closest the band has ever come to a Sonic Youth-esque noise jam, with Miles Wintner’s rolling drumbeat serving as the spine of a slow-to-set-up rocker that, when it finally pays off, does so like a slot machine. With its gradual build and searching lyricism, the track is especially impressive, as Tucker and Tividad’s mirrored vocals vacillate between downcast and excited. Girlpool’s youthful spark is a testament to the sense of wonder. When Tucker and Tividad split their voices on the song “I wonder what it’s like to sit and watch the sunrise”, it feels like they were searching for something. The vocalizations and riffs that follow feel like they’re beyond.
One of the best songs on Girlpool’s debut, Before the World, is “Chinatown”, which has more memorable lyrics than most entire albums. It is one of the duo’s most impressive stripped-down, pre-Powerplant instrumentals. Arhythmic acoustic guitar strums open the track and continue just beneath its surface, like ambient anxiety casting a pall on everyday life. Tucker and Tividad have each other to lean on, trading lyrics, punctuating verse in unison, and harmonize through their sing-song hooks. Their guitar and bass playing is almost percussive, a heartbeat amidst all those worries, not slowing or speeding, but remaining steady.
The centerpiece of Forgiveness is the Tividad-led “Faultline”. Bennett praised the track as a highlight of the album, saying it was the closest Girlpool had ever drifted to Lana Del Rey-style ballads. Tividad sounds like she has been making this kind of music for decades. It is an experiment for the group. Adding to the song is pedal steel and an ambling snare. The lyrics are set against the backdrop of L.A.’s beautiful oblivion, and dance on the “Faultline” between pleasure and pain, “I loved you so traumatically that I can barely lift the world you left for me.” Their high/low vocals show the contrasts that litter “Faultline” but also create the inescapable tensions that make life what it is.
The dream of Girlpool will always be there. Tucker and Tividad’s voices over a few alternating guitar and bass notes are all that is visible in the opener. It is the kind of song that makes you want to write your own songs, because it shows you what kind of music can be contained in a single song. Girlpool said, speaking in terms anyone can understand, but that no one can define. Even in the song’s dream logic-driven world, they find happiness in self-expression and in each other. The track branches out as it builds to its finish, with electric riffs both spacey and skronked out, because Girlpool never fell into the trap of the center of this song. They knew they had to be awake to build their own.
The lead Powerplant track “123” was released in the spring of 2017, after Girlpool signed to ANTI-. Girlpool had earned a reputation as the Saviors of Rock Music before the World, and many of their newfound fans feared their upcoming shift to a full-band sound would rob them of their power. “123” is the duo’s best song to that point or any other, a perfect embodiment of everything they did so well. The 50-second mark is when the band’s potential energy explodes in every direction. It is the sound of growing up, fending off your fears and holding onto your hopes. You could spend hours untangling the lyrics, but they land with an emotional force that is overwhelmingly immediate. Girlpool is in their pure form, persisting through change and creating because they do.
Scott Russell is the music editor for Paste. If you follow him on the social networking site, you can send him a message called:@pscottrussell.
Girlpool has a Paste session.