Who am I, and who are you? Growth. Fear. Changes. The nostalgia of it all. Who are we if I am no longer who I used to be? We desperately cling on to our past in hopes of using it as a band-aid, a short term justification, to heal what we face now. And most of the time, that just isn’t enough.
Hailing out of sleepy Jacksonville, Florida, Bobby Kid has finally come back to wake up out of our 2020 depression slumber. Bobby Kid officially grouped in 2017, and in 2018, they dropped their debut album, Peach, perfectly encapsulating our feelings of childhood, the longing to reconnect with your roots after you’ve gone too far, and first heartbreak. “Blue/Dissonance,” a two-track EP, was released in late March 2021, now available on streaming platforms and for purchase on Bandcamp.
I don’t want to be funny.
I don’t want to be pretty.
I don’t want to be cool.
I just want to be you.
With a whisper, “Blue” subtly demands your attention. “Eat my words, see how they taste,” singer-songwriter Anna Lester pleads through her lyrics. She questions the perception of ourselves made by others, the impact that their supposed-innocuous presence has on our self worth. We can ask ourselves a thousand times on how to become the person that everyone expects us to be, and to stay, and never know the answer. And that’s okay. With a crash, the whisper breaks into a harmonious strew of instruments. I’m a lot… I’m a lot. To close, Lester backs away from her contemplating lyrics, accompanied with evocative instrumentals, to let out distressed wails, bringing the song to a close. The final calm after the storm.
But my insides are turning out towards the sun,
And I feel like I must be the only one.
And I’m crying, lord, I’m crying.
The next song on the long awaited EP is titled, “Dissonance.” Dissonance is defined as the clash of two unharmonious elements, often coupled with your mental state as “cognitive dissonance,” where your actions and your thoughts fail to align. This track immortalizes the feeling of floating through daily life yet failing to recognize the improvements we make in our lives. Recognizing we are worthy is the biggest accomplishment, and we consistently strive hard to achieve it. There’s a lot to love about this track: the soft harmonious vocals, the twinkly, sway-worthy drum work, and the rhythmic guitars. This is definitely one of those tracks where it makes you float around the solo cup-ridden kitchen one moment but have you crying in the house show’s bathroom the next.
Fans of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lunar Vacation can find comfort in Bobby Kid’s words and melodies as we navigate the confusing phenomena understanding who we truly are, imposter syndrome aside. Breaking your heart and mending it all at once is something Bobby Kid has always done right, and we are excited to see what comes of this quick impression of tasty tunes.
