Remi Wolf’s got “Big Ideas” in her sophomore album
By: MaryBeth Reust
Sometimes life is so confusing and lonely that all you want to do is lay on the floor and spread your arms and legs so wide that you start to sink into the ground. When you feel that heavy, music can lift you up before you completely fall through. It can be addicting to escape into a musical dream world. Sometimes, however, you discover an artist with such presence and creativity that you can’t help but feel the need to celebrate living. Remi Wolf is a prime example: her eccentric, yet free-spoken music empowers others to have fun and enjoy the present.
Photo: Ragan Henderson
Remi Wolf is originally from Palo Alto, California, auditioned for American Idol as a senior in high school, then moved to Los Angeles for college and officially began her music career. Recently, she has been on tour, and she wrote the majority of her second album, Big Ideas, during this time. Her first album, Juno, was eccentric, kooky, and raw, as she had just got out of rehab at the time. Big Ideas has the same Remi Wolf-ism’s, but in analog form; the album is filled to the brim with different instruments and inspirations from the ‘60s to the ‘90s, with subjects that touch on loneliness, having sex in hotel rooms, and questionable relationships.
The album starts with a single,”Cinderella,” a funky disco pop song about mood swings. There’s horns, percussion, whistles…all combined to create an infectious rhythm with an illustration of moodiness and chaos hidden behind the noise. The larger-than-life “Soup” is next, blending delicate synth chords with playful breaths, a chanting chorus, and a catchy bass line. Wolf sings about co-dependency on this track with lyrics such as, “Lay like a dog / As I wait for your arrival / Play fetch in the yard / As a means of my survival.” It’s self-aware and frank. This candidness is also seen on “Toro,” the fourth track on the album, where she belts her heart out about having sex in a hotel room with lyrics such as “You're so heavy, I'm horny / And I'm not worried about the sound.” There’s no guessing what this song is about, and it is extremely dance-able, which is refreshing following the previous ballad, “Motorcycle,” where Wolf daydreams about settling down. This imagery is evident in the music video where she waits with her friends (one of them being Victoria Justice!) with lipstick on and a cigarette by the pool, waiting for her man to return home.
Photo: Ragan Henderson
Wolf yearns for company and shares anecdotes from her surroundings in “Alone in Miami,” proving again and again that she can bring you directly into her world with her lyrics. She does the same on my favorite track on the album, “Cherries & Cream,” a psychedelic rock pop song with airy guitar and layered vocals that are breezy and alluring. “Kangaroo” has a scatterbrained jazz rock interlude with Hemlocke Springs-like vocals and yearning lyrics, while “Pitiful” is a shimmery cartoon-y track where Wolf describes her drunken, self-loathing thoughts.
Her lyrics seem to float up and down on “Wave,” where she sings about long distance and self-doubt with a ‘90s/’00s rock inspired chorus. She layers her vocals over an echoey guitar in the journal entry of a song “When I Thought of You,” where she shares her contradicting feelings like “I wanna watch you win / And I wanna watch you cry / I wanna tell the truth, oh, yeah /
I wanna tell a lie.” On the second-to-last track, “Frog Rock,” Wolf reflects on an unhealthy relationship while mixing a trance-like guitar with frog chirps and dj scratching.
The album officially ends with “Just The Start,” a vulnerable acoustic track with honest vocals like “I don't wanna party but I don't really wanna work / Either way I will be lonely, either way I'm cursed.” I found myself wishing this song was even more raw, with emotional voice-cracking that makes you wiggle in your seat, but it was still beautiful. Wolf adds a “bonus track” called “Slay Bitch,” which is a classic Remi Wolf pop song that you want to listen to by the pool or while strutting around. It’s simply fun, and I’m guessing it was added to the end as a pick-me-up. Wolf excels in expressing her struggles through the lens of someone who reaches for pleasure and fun as an escape, something I believe many young people can relate to.
Throughout her sophomore album Big Ideas, Wolf’s powerful vocals and abstract lyricism, combined with warm bass lines and groovy drums, are charismatic and whimsical, but they don’t take away from the hardships of life. Her music illustrates struggles with sobriety, self-doubt, and instability, and the honesty mixed with dance-ability invites you to accept and enjoy the present. Remi Wolf knows how to have fun, and she’s going to make sure you have fun, too.