girlpuppy cover photo credit Tonje Thilesen
Love is and has never been linear. It’s a complicated obstacle course, some moments will thrill you with intense, fascinating sensations. But other times, it can drown you in its complicated, existential drawl, leeching away at you until it’s feasted on your very soul.
…ok that was dramatic. Trust me when I say, love isn’t, for the most part, ACTUALLY going to suck you until you are practically lifeless. But it can certainly feel that way, can’t it? Perhaps it’s the effect of an emotional whiplash, going from being so madly in love that you don’t need a justifiable reason, to then wondering if that love was real, and not some made up fantasy.
And that realisation, that dichotomous depiction of love in its beginning and end reels in the very core of “Sweetness”. girlpuppy’s second LP, written following a breakup from a four-year relationship, a breakup that informed Becca Harvey on where her songwriting had to go next, sees her proudly speed off into said horizons, her new direction rolled out in front of her like the red carpet at the Met Gala.
Harvey shines most with her honesty, lyrically she’s very uncoy about her feelings throughout. Does she love you? Does she love you to the point it hurts? Does she regret ever loving you in the first place? Whatever question you may have, Harvey always sets the record straight.
Speaking of said record, that leads nicely to opener ‘I Just Do!’. An anthemic darling of a track, written after one thrill of a crush, the song chronicles Harvey’s struggles about accepting that someone she loves can’t be with her. It’s physically and mentally ruining her, yet that desirous love fills up all of Harvey’s senses and feelings. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Throughout, Harvey weaves in all the expected sounds of any beloved indie darling effectively. For the crashing, brutal songs, look to tracks like the bittersweet ‘Champ’ or the reflective ‘Since April’. If you’re feeling in the mood for softer, poignant tracks with more spacious vocals, look to the contemplative ‘Windows’ or the heart-wrenching ‘I Was Her Too’, songs that simply canter along at hurting ease.
There’s an interesting progression to be found within Sweetness. Where the album starts off like a bullet train, it slowly rails off into a quiet journey, and any moments of build-up don’t have the same grandiosity of the opening tracks. Is that Harvey’s subtle view of her love? That what once was a spiral of wonder and desire, became not necessarily an anchor, but a hook that lost its appeal.
And closing out this mellow, delicate recollection is ‘I Think I Did’. Outside of Harvey’s soft, wistful performance, there’s an intriguing thought that the album opens with a track about unrequited, unexplainable love, and ends with a song that almost reflects those same feelings even after many years. Their love comes across as indescribable and singing that you were “pregnant with the idea of leaving you” shows that Harvey felt increasingly lovelorn in her relationship.
On Sweetness, girlpuppy develops and harnesses her lyrical talent and ear for rhythmic indie tunes, for an album with sour lyrics about the arising aridity and eventual fall of a relationship.
girlpuppy: Sweetness – Out 28 March 2025 (Captured Tracks)
