24 June 2019 - 0 Comments

Repulsive Woman (the solo project of Millicent Lovelock) releases her debut album Relief, out now all streaming services. Recorded throughout 2018 in Lovelock’s hometown of Dunedin with engineer Adelaide Dunn (Milpool), Relief is an intimate, unfolding exploration in to the perception of self in the context of modern society.

LISTEN TO RELIEF
Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

Muted electric guitar and panned, airy vocals usher in the opening title track of the album, as Lovelock’s optimistic melancholy confesses quiet uncertainty. Soft Borders sees an inner conflict intensify, as she sings: Any movement is betraying me / even stillness is vulnerability / there’s a cost to being in between. The listener is privy to the suffocation and exhaustion of trapping oneself to the in between; remaining ‘agreeable’, ‘soft’, or ‘non-offensive’.

Guitar-driven track When I Get Good lulls into reflection, before launching into the potently satirical Ulysses. Some Body teeters between bitter and soothing as Lovelock’s vocals provide a constant to latch on to in this tumultuous track.

Moving lightly atop a bed of hypnotic acoustic guitar in Rough Around The Edges, circulating rumours take on the form of delicate melodies that allow affecting yet unassuming lyrics to take centre stage. Themes of pressure to mould to an ‘ideal’ reach their peak in Overripe as Lovelock sings: If I could only change.

Closing track Earn It Twice, marks the artist at a halfway point; coming to terms with what others might expect of her, embracing liminality and accepting ways in which she is not always what is expected. Throughout Relief, internal dichotomies and external perceptions of self are explored with depth of nuance, themes most eloquently symbolised in the contrast between Lovelock’s clear, pure vocals binding these 8 tracks, and her evocative moniker Repulsive Woman.

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