Horsegirl—Phonetics On and On (2025)
Slacker indie never dies. It just gets sleepy and needs a big lie-in now and then. Being this cool is hard.
Horsegirl, unrelated to Goat Girl or other animal-based female musical beatcombo, frequently sound like the physical exertions of playing instruments and singing might be slightly too onerous to be done for any extended period. This might help explain the three year gap that has elapsed since their promising debut, slowly honing the slackest, most heavy lidded drawly goodness that humans can muster.
Cynical old bastards might wearily observe this was all done thirty odd years ago, but I always loathe that argument. If a recipe is invented, do we all just abandon it once the novelty has gone? Or do we acknowledge that some things will taste good forever, and keep on enjoying them? Horsegirl knows it is onto something, and with a female twist it gives it something extra from, say, early Velvets, Pavement and their ilk.
Songcraft is ultimately what gets them through, and with a whole pile of instantly engaging earworms (see opening couplet “Where’d You Go?” and “Rock City”, alongside the singles—surely contenders for Sesame Street—”2468” and “In Twos”). As much as they sound entirely unbothered by the prospect of pop stardom, the combo of detached cool and memorable lo-fi bangers is positively guaranteed to gain them a spot among the cool kids of 2025 and beyond.
