Rough Trade’s latest signing The Prettiots have posted their new single “Suicide Hotline” online. “Suicide Hotline” is the follow-up to the NYC trio’s debut single “Boys, I Dated In High School”, both of which are taken from their upcoming debut LP (full details coming soon).
Like many Prettiots songs, couches stunning barbs of insight between sweet, fun harmonies and playful ukelele strums. In this case, singer Kay Kasparhauser says the lyrics describe a time in her life when her “friends and also therapist were a little worried.” They’re macabre, invoking both Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf in darkly humorous fashion. But they’re also lucid and contain a notable amount of perspective, which should go far in quelling the concern of friends and counselors alike.
“My head’s not in the oven / But I can’t get off the floor,” sings Kasparhauser in her no-frills, relatable deadpan. A song about so heavy a subject isn’t for everyone, but its willingness to approach the darkness with a light heart is commendable at least and empowering at best. For many, The Prettiots’ specific brand of snarky sincerity (or sincere snark?) will be exactly what the psychiatrist ordered.
The Prettiots launch a month long residency at Elvis’s Guesthouse in New York tonight, and will be playing their first UK & Europe shows this Autumn.
The Fat Angel Sings 