by Noah Kotzin
Standing out in the Bandcamp tags for Philadelphia-based Queen of Jeans’ new album is ‘denimcore.’ While somewhat of a joke, lambasting the seemingly infinite genres of music to choose from (‘lowercase ambient,’ anyone?), the term certainly rings true. There’s no way to listen to the album (played by Miriam Devora, Matheson Glass, and Patrick Wall) and not think about denim: just shy of punk, ‘edgy’ but no overbearingly so.
If You’re Not Afraid, I’m not Afraid (IYAIA for short) opens with one of the highlights of the album: “Get Lost.” Compositionally, the song is a feat: not only does it contain a great melody, its structure is very well put together. Near the end of the song, Devora sings over her past self; in other words, what she sang at the beginning of the song is cut and pasted into its ending over a new melody, which you might expect to not work well but is done in such a way to create incredible catharsis. After this comes a guitar solo that sounds like nothing heard regularly in pop-rock: with its octave-jumping arpeggios, it briefly sounds as if Devora (who plays the guitar on the album as well as sings) is channeling Bach. This is not the only time Queen of Jeans seems to take influence from classical compositions. Queen of Jeans frequently uses melodic ornamentation, especially noticeable on “Rum Cheeks,” whose quiet and beautiful melody is made more interesting by grace notes and non-chord tones.
Lyrically, IYAIA makes some wonderful and experimental choices. One technique they use is to repeat a line but with a single word changed, for example in “Centuries” (“been alive for centuries/been a lie for centuries”). This goes against the grain of most pop-rock, where it’s expected that words that rhyme will be different words, but Queen of Jeans make it work. Most of the lyrics create imagery without being specific: suggesting a story without telling it, allowing the listener to use their imagination to interpret the song for themselves. The songs do seem to be related in some way, at least thematically. As a whole, the album can be seen as the progress of a single protagonist (Devora) as she loses touch with people, or perhaps one person, then deals with understanding the other, and eventually grows from the experience, but in vague enough terms that there is no specific story being told. If one views it as a concept album telling one story, then the album could mirror someone’s experience with losing touch, from sadness on “All the Same” to anger on “Only Obvious to You” to melancholy on “Bloomed” to, finally, acceptance on “Take it all Away.”
While taken individually most songs are quite well made, as a cohesive whole, IYAIA is a little bit repetitive. With the exception of “Rum Cheeks,” most of the songs follow similar patterns with similar melodies. And the formula Queen of Jeans seems to have found is good: again, the songs when seen individually are quite well-done. However, listening to the album in a single sitting, there’s definitely the feeling that you’re listening to only a few songs, just with slight variation. I don’t know if this completely detracts from the album (not all albums are to be listened to in a single sitting), but Queen of Jeans are certainly able to break out of such a formula, “Get Lost” and “Rum Cheeks” in particular show both compositional prowess and creativity without breaking from Queen of Jeans’ ‘denimcore’ aesthetic, and it would’ve been nice to see more of that on the album.
While not fully working as a ‘one sitting’ album experience, Queen of Jeans’ If You’re not Afraid, I’m not Afraid is a well-made and oftentimes beautiful album. With the compositional prowess of its songwriter Miriam Devora, Queen of Jeans is able to craft great melodies and tie them up with well-designed structures.
Rating: 4/5 Flames (Recommended)
Highlights: “Get Lost,” “All the Same,” “Rum Cheeks.”
Released 23 August 2019, Topshelf Records.
