Remi Wolf Explores Her 'Big Ideas' in Sophomore Album
After bringing her effervescent energy to Europe as an opener on Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS Tour, indie pop artist Remi Wolf is delivering experimental sounds, strong vocals, and groovy melodies on her second studio album Big Ideas.
Watch the music video for "Cinderella" on YouTube.
The Palo Alto native introduced the Big Ideas era in March with lead single and opening track “Cinderella.” A funky and horn-filled song with a recurring whistle syncopation, “Cinderella” encapsulates the album’s youthful essence. Wolf said the song reflects the “mood swings” and “transient lifestyle” she experienced when writing Big Ideas, a fact also apparent in track three, “Motorcycle.” The fourth out of five singles on the album, “Motorcycle,” explores the juxtaposition of wanting conflicting lifestyles: “People walk on by, they don’t know we’re fly / Secret lives of the wives of Harley Davidson.”
In true Remi Wolf nature, she left it all on the table in terms of delivering classic synth-pop, can’t-help-but-dance tracks. “Soup” immediately transports listeners to the end of a coming-of-age movie with its hopeful chord progression and lyrics like “I don’t wanna live without you.” Wolf calls back to these lyrics but with a darker spin in “Frog Rock,” furthering the sense of thematic cohesion in the record when she sings, “I don’t wanna live here.”
Wolf for Vogue. Photo by Ragan Henderson.
Wolf also demonstrates a sense of lyrical and sonic cohesion throughout the record in tracks like “Wave” and “When I Thought Of You.” The funky bass line that opens “Wave” has a beachy feel and full band entrance as Wolf sings, “I’ll ride this like a wave”: it is the sonic equivalent to the crashing of tides. In “When I Thought Of You,” Wolf’s candid vocal inflections match the blunt lyrics she gives melody to: “I don’t like you, but it’s okay.”
“Cherries & Cream” is one of the most memorable songs on Big Ideas and truly exhibits Wolf’s artistry. A song I can best describe as a funky dreamscape with a sort of alien sound, “Cherries & Cream” utilizes clean guitar riffs, space laser interjections, and darker melodies. There is something so satisfying about the sonic contradictions Wolf employs. As she sings, “But you taste like cherries and cream,” in a staccato manner, she is backed by a smooth, groovy bass line, but in the next line, sharp hi-hat hits juxtapose her refined vocals.
The motif of “big ideas” spans into the production of the album, as Wolf experiments with diverse electronic sounds. In “Pitiful,” a bouncy, bell-like synth opens the playful track, and in “Kangaroo,” a distorted baritone saxophone solo carries the bridge.
Before ending the record with the campy bonus track “Slay Bitch,” Wolf lets her vulnerability come to the forefront in the acoustic track “Just The Start.” In singing, “No, I don’t wanna party, but I don’t really wanna work / Either way I will be lonely / Either way I’m cursed,” backed by just a soft guitar line, Wolf brings the rawness present throughout the entire album to a whole new level.
Wolf will embark on her Big Ideas tour in September which includes a set at Maryland’s All Things Go Festival.