Whether the music wows you or not, Blondshell is one of those acts that make a strong first impression. The extreme openness, at times callous attitude, and sarcastic, raunchy sense of humor either win you over quickly or can be pretty off-putting. I get both sides. There’s really not much of a major shift in tone, or sound, or style, to win you over if you already weren’t a fan, but for those that are there is more maturity and introspection this time around on If You Asked For A Picture – especially regarding family.
As someone without a great relationship with their mother as well, I relate to a lot of the album’s messaging and consistent discussion about Sabrina Teitelbaum’s struggles with her own mother, even when I don’t always love the approach.
“What’s Fair” is the most mature display of Sabrina’s writing skills the album has to offer. It’s a wonderful and very personal track laying out her difficult relationship with her mother while also weaving in the ways that cultural misogyny is often passed down through parents first. This ingrained misogyny and low self-esteem comes up again on “Event of a Fire” as Sabrina does an excellent job conveying the struggles she faced while also dealing with burnout on tour. Even some of the moments I don’t particularly relate to, like “Arms”, revolving around a failed relationship because of Sabrina’s lack of a desire to ‘mother’ her partner, is well done, and it’s one of the better songs off If You Asked For A Picture.
If You Asked For A Picture also starts and stops on two extreme high notes, which is always a good sign that an album’s creator has put a lot of thought into their work. “Thumbtack” is really laid back instrumentally, and the track just breezily moves with some calm singing and excellent writing. The closer is my favorite track on the album. The twangy instrumental and Sabrina’s calm delivery is fantastic, and it’s got one of the best hook’s in all of Blondshell‘s music so far. A completely captivating track and an excellent way to finish the album.
As I said before, it doesn’t always work perfectly. “23’s A Baby” is really self-infantilizing and at times comes across very selfish. I get that it comes from a place of doubting the idea of motherhood to begin with and it does fit within the album as a whole, but I don’t think the approach here is well done, and I’d rather it have taken a more personal approach.
Blondshell production is very heavily influenced by some of the bigger 90s indie and alt-rock acts, and as enjoyable as the throwback can be, it does leave you wanting more sometimes. The overdramatic guitar playing on “T&A” complements the lyrics to make a perfectly tongue-in-cheek raunchy track that just manages to avoid being over the top. “He Wants Me” is probably the heaviest instrumental on the album and it goes over well. Sabrina and co. could stand to try more tracks like this. There are some misses; especially on “Two Times” which is a mess vocally and instrumentally. The bare bones guitars just abandon Sabrina to try and shift the gears of her vocal range like a kid trying to learn stick for the first time. It gets into gear on the hook but that wind down again is rough.
While I find Sabrina’s very open approach to writing to be a strength, I do have to be honest and say that it can be a little grating at times. Lyrically, ”Change” just reads like a bad early career Lana Del Rey track, except without any of the melodrama, which is kinda the whole point of Lana’s shtick to begin with. I don’t really get “Toy”. Tried looking at the interview where she discussed tracks from the album. Still don’t.
I enjoyed If You Asked For A Picture quite a bit, but I do think Blondshell won’t be for everyone and as a fan I’m not quite sure this is a step up from the first album. The writing is a unique strength, but the approach could definitely rub some the wrong way, and if you were intrigued but wanted to see a style or tone shift from album one to two, you didn’t get it. As I said previously, I’m not sure there will be that change. It’s worked for Sabrina to this point, and sometimes if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
