Album Review: Dreamgrl by Deathcat
Some may not believe it, but there was once a time when I went to see Deathcat in a small, dimly lit Ipanema, maybe 25 people in attendance. The crowd was made up of friends and family, people lucky enough to see the early stage of such a powerful band led by Caroline Gunn and Gaby Davenport. I thought of that wistfully as I entered a recent sold-out show at The Camel to see them playing in front of hundreds of eager and energetic fans. It was their first show with their new drummer, and the band could not have sounded any tighter, somehow amplifying the intensity of that early, intimate impression. With the release of their debut EP, Dreamgrl, Deathcat has stepped confidently into a new chapter, offering four tracks that firmly establish them as one of today’s most vital voices.
The EP starts with “Ordinary Hands” on a bouncy guitar that leads you into a familiar backyard with your closest friends. As the song descends harder and harder, it lets you into the pleading and desperate thoughts that swirl without filter, before an optimistic riff holds your shoulders and brings you back into the present. One of Gunn’s strong suits as a lyricist is her ability to translate wordless thoughts into youthful poetry. It’s a translation of whirlwind feelings and thoughts, the kind that speak in unfamiliar tongues and phrases. She paints pictures that one hundred artists could not describe.
Just as readily, she can reply to herself in songs with Deathcat lyrics often turning into conversation. One half expresses turmoil, trouble, and all the other hard feelings, and is quickly responded to by a wise outside source. I like to see it as a future self coming back in time to comfort the present.
When asked how a song starts with Deathcat, Gunn explains that she “purges all her feelings into a song as a way to, sort of, let it go.” Her current process often starts with a real event. “’Ordinary Hands’ started out about a boy,” but in building the scene, it ended up as her understanding and frustration “towards the state of the world.” The spark of this song came from a man telling Gunn that her body was all she had, and her response was simply “I don’t feel that I have my body.” That space is exactly where Deathcat absolutely thrives: personal experience that opens up to universal truths.
“Dreamgrl” is the second track, which strips away all the niceties of “Ordinary Hands” and rips it with crunchy and dirty guitars. Davenport takes lead vocals on this number and bears it with no hesitation. On the sliding scale of genre, Davenport takes Deathcat far into the punk sphere, channeling L7, Nirvana, The Breeders, and any number of other brutally honest ’90s icons. The song has a steady chug of guitar and bass, with the ever-universal tag line “I’m not your dream girl\ I never was”.
As they are known to do, the song sums up an untold number of experiences into just three minutes. Davenport and Gunn are very honest and open about the opposition they have faced as a woman-fronted band, and even in other bands. Both members have been in a handful of man-dominated projects which led Davenport to feel “overpowered by the men in the room,” a sentiment shared and echoed by Gunn, all of which makes “Dreamgrl” such an essential track.
“Your Stupid City” has been a hallmark of the Deathcat set since day one, featured in a retro-stylized music video earlier this year. “If I get what I want, I am going to have to play ‘Stupid City’ until I die,” Gunn says to me with a laugh. This was the first song the duo sat down with a few years ago. They were a young and ambitious pair of songwriters setting out to document a moment of youth and freedom, with the song becoming the perfect canvas.
This song is prime bildungsroman, coming of age. A surfy guitar follows Gunn’s vocals and helps paint a scene of two young folks itching to scream their feelings, while still hiding behind a thin veil of self-control. Desiring to just get on the roof and yell everything you would do for that one person that makes you feel alive. You want to whisper, you want to cry, you want to tattoo their name on your chest and wear it with a smile. All this exists in a world that’s reinforced with subtlety and indifference. Gunn once again switches masterfully between internal and external perspectives with lines like “My apartment is disgusting\ And I don’t believe in nothing\ You suspect there’s a connection” showing what is between the two characters. At the same time, the chorus explores what the protagonist is truly feeling: (“If you asked me\ I would move to your stupid city”).
It’s clear why this song has become such a trademark for the band. Aside from its catchy laid-back riffs and swinging beat, it is undeniably relatable to a generation. Sitting here, listening to this song with my girlfriend, I feel a pull in my chest. It sums up everything I want to say, everything I want to do, and leaves me feeling breathless and seen. It is a whole and complete story of passion and want.
“I think a lot of us grew up watching the world end,” Gunn muses. “I have had so much anxiety for as long as I can remember, and I think that has really shown up in a lot of my songs.” It’s another shared truth for the band, with so much emotion drowned out by an unforgiving society. “It is so hard to look at the world optimistically,” Davenport adds solemnly.
Despite that, the duo doesn’t get caught up in disillusionment. Deathcat believes radically, they love radically, and they worry radically. They understand that to truly live, you need to be radical. “Your Stupid City” contains the line “We could live in a tree,” and I think that sums up what they believe in. It knows the limits of society and casts them out the door–they will just live romantically and radically instead. Here, the desire is not to escape reality, but to remake it… with the same passion that Deathcat brings to their music.
The EP ends with “All I Wanted,” a slow and intimate embrace. It leads you forward with a lo-fi bedroom style ballad before driving guitars ramp up the tension and stakes. This is Davenport at her most vulnerable. It seems as if she is singing into a mirror, brushing away hair as she returns home from somewhere unfamiliar and unfriendly. This is the type of song that you need to sit in silence after listening. Allow yourself to take a moment and let a flood of memories and experiences rush over you, drown your brain, only to be reborn and redefined by every hard moment and every terribly difficult decision. This song resets you and puts it all in the past. I can see a thousand people alone in their bedrooms reading these lyrics over and over again, letting it push them into a new existence.
With these four songs, Deathcat has cemented themselves as champions of the everyday experience. Their creativity is compelling while maintaining an undeniably relatable identity, all driven by a tuned ear for connection in song. And that’s exactly what you’ll find on Dreamgrl and at any performance by Deathcat, leaving every listener with something to hold onto.
Dreamgrl is out now via Sockhead Records and available to stream on all major platforms. To stay up-to-date on the band’s next performance and releases, follow them on Instagram and bookmark their Linktree.
