Pillow Queens new album ‘Name Your Sorrow’ is more exposed than ever before. Taking influence from the Irish poet Eavan Boland – alongside the likes of Tool, Barbara Streisand and Frank Ocean – it’s a raw account of life, love and self-worth as the band consider a question posed in Boland’s poem ‘Love’: ‘Will we ever live so intensely again?’
‘February 8th’ opens the album with an experimental stop-start feel and drum machine sounds as the band plead with someone: ‘If you’re leaving, come back again’. ‘Suffer’ reminded us of latter-day Sharon Van Etten with its brooding and powerful opening along with repeats of the words ‘I’m fine’. This is soon followed by ‘I hope you’re happy’ being spat out with some venom while the industrial sounds gives the song a dark edge. This is followed by recent single ‘Like a Lesson’ an anthemic piece with a touch of Gang of Youths or R.E.M. in its sound that has the relatable line of ‘I don’t wanna ruin my life but I wanna go home with you’.
‘Blew Up the World’ moves into more of an acoustic area that gives the pining lyrics extra emphasis – ‘4 in the morning, I don’t deserve this. I asked for mercy, you gave me curses’ – while ‘Friend of Mine’ ventures into the space that has served The Gaslight Anthem so well. ‘Gone’ is full of power-pop hooks and self-depreciation – ‘Trying to be your rock but I’m just your fool’. This confessional and honest approach continues on ‘Heavy Pour’ – a song about backing your decisions, no matter what others may think: ‘No one believed me when I said you were good for me, they didn’t see you when you were blossoming’ (repeated twice to really emphasize the point). It finishes with gorgeous harmonies and a plea to ‘Let me feel everything’.
‘Love II’ has a Bad Seeds edge to its sound as the words vow to find a way to feel better, while the closing ‘Notes on Worth’ has a slow build-up, air of defiance (‘I don’t wanna go home alone this weekend, I think I’m worth the time’) and perfectly pitched flourishes of keys. This album is a triumph of honesty overcoming adversity. Don’t sleep on Pillow Queens’ ‘Name Your Sorrow’.
