Monday 3/22: Pickle Darling—"Rinse Spin Cycle / Nicolas Cage"
Today, we look back on a really cute indie-pop song from 2019 by the New Zealand artist Pickle Darling.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him) and Eric Bennett (they/them). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. Now we’re, also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc. Three days of the week are free but you can get access to all five weekly posts by subscribing for $5/month via Substack or $2/month via our Patreon.
Today, we look back on a really cute indie-pop song from 2019 by the New Zealand artist Pickle Darling.
Pickle Darling—"Rinse Spin Cycle / Nicolas Cage"
Eric Bennett:
If you were to ask me to describe what twee-pop sounds like, my answer would be nearly identical to my description of this Pickle Darling track. It’s certainly pop music, full of lively electronic instrumentation floating around it like glitter you will never get out of the carpet, but it lacks the bombast, the bawdiness tied to much of pop. Additionally, part of why my preconceptions of twee fall so closely in line here is the sunny, sentimental tenor of the whole thing. You can feel this song demurring like a shrinking violet. Pickle Darling’s Lukas Mayo seems to be hiding behind the chimes and bells, particularly in the song’s first movement, the “Rinse Spin Cycle” portion of the title. Once it glides onward to “Nicolas Cage,” Mayo is at the forefront, and while his voice exudes no more confidence than it did before, it politely asks for the listener's attention more readily. I had not heard this before today, but as I listen and look out the window to see a radiant spring day, I can practically hear that same brightness in the song.
Eli Enis:
I fell in love with this song a couple years ago when I first heard Pickle Darling’s 2019 album Bigness, which was released by the Slovakian tape label Z Tapes. I hadn’t heard it in a long time until I randomly decided to put it on last night and wow, it’s just such a sweet song. The little synth line in the first half is super infectious and then when Mayo’s voice comes in for the second half, it just gives me this giddy rush of joy. It reminds me of the lo-fi bedroom music that blew up in the early and mid-2010s (early Alex G, Spencer Radcliffe, Julia Brown, R.L. Kelly) but without any of the hazy melancholia. Until now, I didn’t even realize Pickle Darling has a new album called Cosmonaut coming out later this spring, so keep an eye out for that if you like this.