Girl at the Rock Shows

It’s a Tuesday night, and I honestly can’t tell if I’m in the mood for a show or not. I’ve had the past couple of nights off from shows, but they’ve been taken up by kids’ sports games (not my kids, but my boyfriend’s kids) and housework. It’s been nice to live a slightly more normal life for a couple of nights, and now that we’ve reached night three of this domesticated feeling, I’m wondering if I should give it one more night before returning to living the dream and attending nightly shows. At the same time, I’m craving a live show. I want the sensation of vibrations coursing through my body and the energy that only comes from a live band. I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place (self-induced, of course), so I figured I would spend some time checking out some new music while I decide what I want to do with my night.

“Orbit,” the title track, kicks off this quick EP from Swedish act Rabbit Fire. This song is soft, sweet, and very lo-fi compared to what I thought I was in the mood for tonight, but it instantly hit the spot. I instantly forgot about that rock and a hard place I was stuck in, and my mind was filled with fluffy clouds and this odd sensation of a cool winter breeze on my skin. I wanted to say so much about this opening track, but as I listened to it for the fifth time in a row, I realized that this is the kind of song that just welcomes you into Rabbit Fire’s world, and it doesn’t have to be much more than that. It’s the kind of song that, after a long day, cleanses your mind, body, and soul in just the right way while leaving you wanting so much more of the blissful feeling that Rabbit Fire clearly has to offer.

Although there’s just as much beauty in “Fuzz War” as was laid out in “Orbit,” I felt more moments of dissonance that really intrigued me. Some of the notes didn’t make sense to me. It almost felt wobbly, a bit off-kilter, but as the two-minute and forty-second song progressed, I realized just how perfectly those wobbles fit into the song and how it brought a whole new feeling to my soul. It wasn’t that I felt uncomfortable, but this song put me in a retrospective kind of mentality. Something about the dissonance made me think of uncomfortable moments that had been plaguing my mind, but as those moments cleared up into beautiful moments of lush atmospheric bliss, I could feel those moments fall right out. Dramatic, I know, but the power of this song is truly a wonder.

“We Got So Close” was the first song on this quick EP where I felt something just slightly more commercial. I know, at this point, that Rabbit Fire is far from a commercial sounding band, so I know that my calling this song “slightly commercial” is a stretch, but the guitar just felt a bit more classic and accessible. The vocals came through a bit clearer in this song, giving me a glimpse into the genius that lies within the words throughout this EP. Although this is another bright and lush song, I caught a hint of darkness and sadness in the vocals, which, although not quite what I was in the mood for, evoked an unexpected sense of emotion in me.

“Fire Blanket” closes out this EP (in a way, but more on that in a hot minute) with the same beauty that started this EP, just with a little more power. I could feel the clarity grow throughout this EP, and although I wouldn’t call “Fire Blanket” crystal clear, I feel like there is a bit less fuzz, and the atmospheric ambiance felt in the previous songs clears up a little bit to give you a better view of the sun, the individual clouds, and the birds. As the song faded out, I realized just how visually striking this album was. Every song brought a different vision to my mind, but they all revolved around the sky in some way or another. When these four songs were up, I felt my feet gently touch the ground again for the first time in about ten minutes, and I wasn’t a fan of it. I didn’t want to leave Rabbit Fire’s world, didn’t want to escape their firm yet gentle grasp, and, luckily for me, this isn’t where the EP ended.

Although “Fire Blanket” ends this EP on Spotify, it keeps going on Bandcamp, and “Fire Blanket is followed up by “BMX.” At just one minute and seven seconds, this song felt more like an ambient break than anything else. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a full thought in this song and a full moment that you can have to yourself, being lost in pure beauty and bliss.

The song that really closes out this album is “Southern Noise,” and, although it’s not a stark deviation from anything I had heard previously on this album, it was truly just lovely to have an additional two and a half minutes to be lost in Rabbit Fire’s world. There was something ironic about hearing the line, “I’m going home,” clearly in this song. It really ties things up and ushers you back into the real world in a beautiful way, but that doesn’t make the transition any easier. If I were you, I would just spend the rest of your day listening to this album on repeat.

Tl;dr – Life gets insane sometimes, and I feel like those times are happening more and more often as the world gets nuttier and nuttier. Rabbit Fire gives you an escape that will sweep you off your feet and leave you hanging in the comfort of clouds. If you’re a daydreamer, be warned, this album will take you all over the place and leave you feeling things you weren’t quite expecting or ready for. If you are perpetually stressed out, prepare yourself because, at the end of this journey, you will feel a sense of relief that you didn’t know was possible.

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