“Look what you did, you’ll make a killer of a Jewish girl” sings Blondshell at the top of “Salad,” a lyric so searing it almost burns through the speakers. Not only does “Salad” nod to Blondshell’s Judaism in its first 20-seconds (on the first night of Passover, no less), but it proceeds to rip through four more minutes of storytelling both angry and empowered, a revenge fantasy of sorts narrating an imagined vigilante justice after a friend’s abuser gets absolved of his crime.
The song’s lyrics may be jet-black, but as is often the case with Blondshell’s music, they are juxtaposed against a technicolour of infectious, hard-hitting melodies.
On the release of her debut album, Teitelbaum says, "It’s hard to summarise what this album means to me. I was able to work through so much by writing and singing these songs. In a way I was also able to find my voice by finally saying these things out loud. I wasn’t intending to write an album as much as I was just trying to get relief from an intense and difficult time in my life. My biggest hope is that people can see the album for what it is: there’s no happy ending or ‘message,’’ it’s just a window into what it’s like when you’re trying to figure out who you are and what you want.”
Blondshell will arrive in the UK and Europe next month to tour the record, kicking off at Brighton’s Great Escape with two slots, ahead of headline dates that include Moth Club on the 24th May, and shows in Manchester, Glasgow, and Bristol. All dates are below.
In the past few years, the 25-year-old Teitelbaum has transformed into a songwriter without fear. The loud-quiet excavations that comprise the hook-filled 'Blondshell' don’t only stare traumas in the eye, they tear them at the root and shake them, bringing precise detail to colossal feelings. They’re clear-eyed statements of and about digging your way towards confidence, self-possession, and relief.
Born and raised in New York City, Teitelbaum moved to Los Angeles for music school in 2015. She dropped out after two years, but while there studied classic and jazz theory, and the art of harmonies, and found herself writing songs inside the world of pop studio sessions.
The biggest gift the pop machine gave her was the stark clarity of realizing that she didn’t quite belong there. Her music was increasingly too raw and intense to easily categorize, and after finishing her last full-on pop EP with producer Yves Rothman (Yves Tumor, Girlpool, Porches) at the start of the pandemic, she gave herself permission to write without expectation. She began penning songs just for herself, with no thought that she would release them. The process emboldened her. Subtracting self-consciousness became a catalyst for the lucid songs of 'Blondshell', on which her experiences all coalesce to form her truest expressions of self yet. “It was me, as a person, in my songs,” she says. When she showed a few to Rothman, he encouraged her to write an album, joining a chorus of friends saying, “This is you.” That bracing honesty charges every note of 'Blondshell'.
