Blondshell Contemplates Love and Self-Image on ‘If You Asked For A Picture’
Known for her distinctive bubblegrunge sound, Blondshell released her sophomore record If You Asked For A Picture on May 2nd. She’s had a promising start to her career, her first single “Olympus” gaining some traction, and her debut self-titled album solidly a success. In this second studio album, she offers fans more of what they’ve known and loved, while adding fresh elements to her lyricism and overall presentation.
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To open the album, “Thumbtack” feels like it will become an essential piece of her discography. While many of her previous standout tracks have been powerful and venomous (think of the spitting anger of “Salad”), “Thumbtack” provides a slower, more thoughtful view on what seems to be a toxic situation. Despite the reduced pace of the song, its lyrics still pack a punch—lines such as “Keep fucking with my head / 'Cause it's not as bad as what I do to myself” revealing not only the singer’s troubled relationship with the subject, but her troubled relationship with her own self.
With the repetitive chorus “Letting him in, why don't the good ones love me? / Watching him fall, watching him go right in front of me,” “T&A” feels like a thematic continuation of much of Blondshell’s first album. Here, she recognizes that her partner is perhaps not the healthiest person to have in her life, yet also admits that she is fully allowing the destruction to occur.
“Arms” is one of the standout tracks on the album. It has that darker sound that works so well with her husky vocals and discusses not only an individual relationship but addresses a larger societal issue. Throughout the verses and bridge, she repeats this sentiment of “I don't wanna be your mom.” Often, there is a narrative across heterosexual relationships that women are expected to be the caretakers of men, playing a role, they don’t necessarily want to and certainly shouldn’t be asked to fill. In the chorus, she appears to be speaking to herself; “Oh, well, you're not gonna save him / Not gonna save him, save him, save him.” In repeating this over and over, she seems to be reaffirming this for herself yet alludes to a desire to be that savior figure.
The lead single off the album, “What’s Fair” is another strong and layered track. In it, Blondshell sings directly to her mother, unpacking their nuanced relationship. She opens with the line “I think that you’d be proud I flew alone today,” expressing the desire for her mother’s approval. Later in the song, however, she calls her mother out; “You always had a reason / To comment on my body.” With dualities such as this, the song as a whole paints a picture of a complex and fraught relationship, ultimately coming back to that titular question, “What’s fair?”
“Two Times” at first seems like a simple love song. Early on in the track, she makes the straightforward declaration “I’m not good at songs when you’re around / 'Cause I love you, I love you.” However, it wouldn’t be a Blondshell track without a level of complication—in this case, it comes with her own self-doubt. In the pre-chorus, she admits that the problems in the relationship stem from her own questioning; “What the hell is wrong / With my head / Sometimes it feels like you’re not enough.” Throughout the track, it is clear that she wants a relationship with her partner to work out, but has her misgivings at the same time.
If “Two Times” seems vulnerable, just wait until you hear “Event of a Fire.” A beautifully gut-wrenching song, in it Blondshell reflects on being younger, particularly age sixteen, and muses on how far she’s come yet what has stayed the same. Ultimately, she finds herself wondering, “What if I’m burnt out.”
“23’s A Baby” may seem like its chorus is just a pun (“23's a baby / Why'd you have a baby?”) but when one takes a closer look at the track, she asks a hard hitting question with these lines, and expresses a deep level of betrayal with the lines “You killed me when you had it / The hopelessness is always see-through / You know that I still need you.”
The next track, “Change,” is one of the strongest on the album, especially lyrically. The entire song is rife with imagery, and the repetition of “I'm sorry for changing” at the end of the song captures such intense emotion.
While “Toy” offers many noteworthy lyrics, one of the ones to focus on is “I won't lose my body if I get a belly.” This calls back to “What’s Fair,” when Blondshell mentions that her mother commented on her body excessively. Here, she seems to be coming to terms with her physicality, and accepting that it’s okay not to conform to excessive and unhealthy beauty standards.
Earlier in the album, “Two Times” sounds like a love song, but upon closer examination is more about the singer’s relationship with herself. “He Wants Me,” on the other hand, doesn’t necessarily give the typical sonic vibes of a love song, but lyrically is one of the most blatant love songs she’s written to date.
The penultimate track, “Man,” discusses Blondshell’s relationship at seventeen with a man significantly older than her. Throughout the song, she refers to the power imbalance, the most chilling lines being “But he was twenty-eight and off of the handle / I was a kid wanting to cancel.”
“Model Rockets” is an existential anthem to round out the album. The final line, “Life may have been happening elsewhere,” feels very Sylvia Plath-esque. That concept that one is missing out on their own life, or that their life could be so different if they had made different choices, were in a different place, is one that feels so utterly human to ponder. Ultimately, that is one of the best ways to describe If You Asked For A Picture as a whole: completely and utterly human.
