Mall Girl release tantalising new single "Emo Shred" ahead of new album 'Pure Love' out 26th January via Jansen Records.
Oslo trio Mall Girl have shared new single "Emo Shred", the final taster of the band's new album 'Pure Love' - out 26th January via Jansen Records.
Painting a starry-eyed picture of liberation and romance to a backdrop of wiry, tapped guitar passages and intricate jazzy drum rolls; of the new single vocalist Bethany Forseth-Reichberg said:
"This was the first step into our new musical bubble, previously released as a demo. It has now metamorphosed into a real song, but is still a song about just driving around in a Chevrolet by the beach. Picture LA nights, sand between your toes and nothing on your mind, except that life feels pretty darn good."
'Pure Love' is the second album from the Oslo art-pop experimentalists, following the band's acclaimed 2022 debut full length 'Superstar' which received notable tips from The Guardian, TIME Magazine, amongst others.
Bethany Forseth-Reichberg along with guitarist Iver Armand Tandsether and drummer Veslemøy Narvesen (one of the most sought-after jazz drummers in Norway) combine to form one of the most uncompromising, unique and exhilarating pop outfits coming out of Scandinavia, with Bethany's exquisite voice and intriguing impassioned prose providing the perfect counterpoint to Iver's explosive guitar work and Veslemøy's gripping drumming.
It was last year when Bethany and Iver had "a major kick on Midwest Emo" and "all things intricate guitar riffs" - as Bethany expands on the influences at play...
"I had also just seen Big Thief live and felt like Adrianne Lenker had opened up a new pathway in my musical brain. After listening to 'Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You' on repeat for maybe a whole month and forcing Iver and Veslemøy to listen to the riff in 'Simulation Swarm'
maybe equally as many times, the process of writing new music started."
An eclectic merging of influences ranging from indie-pop, dream-pop and jazz to midwest emo and math-rock, 'Pure Love' the second album from Mall Girl, thematically zeros in on just that, pure love. Through first breakups and dating through post-break-up pain and insecurities, the album finds the band proposing questions: “what do I believe in? Who do I want to become? and Where is my life headed?”.
Bethany went on to say:
"I guess the album is like a break up album meets a Bildungsroman (is it like an episode of Girls? Maybe). Ironically, the “post-college-rock” sound could maybe go hand in hand with the post college experience I’ve had a go at writing about. I am glad we wrote this album and slightly (very)
nervous to let people hear our take on Pure Love."
Mall Girl will release new album 'Pure Love' on 26th January via Jansen Records.
Photo by: Vilde Nordheim Evensen