Jack O’Sullivan delves into rhirhi’s debut album, talking about childhood bliss and the woes of growing up against nostalgia.
There’s a cheerful misery in this ode to youth. With age, many would argue, we lose. Whether it’s our childlike wonder, innocence or naivety, Getting Older, Getting Older is both a celebration of these as well as a demonstration of the struggle to cling to all that is safe in childhood.
Meshing a lyrical frankness and brash candour akin to Elliot Smith with a willowy shyness reminiscent of Dodie.
Her first full-length album, we’re seeing more of rhirhi on one release than we have so far. Not just in length but in versatility, we still hear the minimalistic and raw records we’re familiar with demonstrated in Bittersweet and 15 Forever as well as an exploration into more abstract subsets of sound that manage to envelope you as a listener like Pass By and High.
Recounting the joys, in the blissfully simple but sugary sweet Perfect Day, and the all-to-common sorrows of absent self-esteem, grief and that nagging sense of inadequacy, which we hear healthily discussed throughout the album, although most succinctly portrayed in the title track.
Perfect Day reminds you of a pre-beatnik love song, something that one could imagine being plucked from the age of crooners and the jukebox. While Getting Older, Getting Older opens the album with an apprehension to go forward, weighed down by a longing for youth and the sense that time has left us in its wake.
Rapidly shifting between moods and topics yet never losing its momentum, although it is an album of lived experiences you are prompted to look within yourself.
Little Things Today embodies this sentiment of self-reflection structurally beginning in 1st person with a confession, the spouting of innermost thoughts, before shifting to a second-person direct reference message of reassurance and familiar comfort that inevitably seems aimed at the listener.
Stream Getting Older, Getting Older and let’s hear your thoughts.
