Monday 8/24: Tomberlin—"Wasted"
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the Kentucky singer-songwriter Tomberlin.
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.
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the Kentucky singer-songwriter Tomberlin.
Tomberlin—“Wasted”
Eric Bennett:
Tomberlin’s new single "Wasted" has a lot more of a kick to it than much of her previous material. It maintains its homespun warmth, but rather than quiet musings, its lyrics are pushed forth. She’s not an artist known for percussion, but the drums here are superb. It’s not a complicated arrangement, but there’s a deep bass drum interspersed with a clattering that sounds less like an instrument and more like someone hitting the kitchen counter. Its lyrics shuffle through rhyme schemes, but land on the sentiment of “how come you only say I’m cute when you’re wasted?” Tomberlin is not an artist with patience for withheld feelings. That's part of why her 2018 debut album At Weddings is so powerful. She’s so open about them, so why can’t everyone be?
Eli Enis:
I think Tomberlin is a great singer-songwriter in her own right, but the part that intrigued me most about this song and the EP it’s from is that it was co-produced by Alex G and his longtime guitarist Sam Acchione. G arguably my favorite artist of all time, and I actually saw Tomberlin open for him once back in the before-times. However, I always thought of the two as quite different musicians before I heard “Wasted”. Tomberlin has her own lyrical and singing style, but that fluttering violin noise (at least that’s what I think it is?) that hovers throughout the instrumental breaks is distinctly Alex G, recalling the haunted shriek in the middle of Trick’s “Memory” or the elongated ring in the Rocket song “Judge”. It toes that rickety line between pretty and uneasy, and I think the two make for a great pairing. I’m stoked to hear the rest of the project.