Glam rock outlet The Foxies has released a new EP. Entitled Growing Up Is Dead, the six-song collection is exuberant pop-punk at its most glitter-saturated.
Highlights include “Deep Sea Diver,” which lead singer Julia Lauren Bullock described as a “love song to yourself,” making it the perfect anthem for the end of Mental Health Awareness Month. “It’s going to the deep end of your own soul to tell yourself, ‘Hey, I’ll be there for you.’ You’re going to have to live with yourself for the rest of your life, so you might as well be your best friend,” Bullock said.
The Foxies – Deep Sea Diver (Lyric Video)www.youtube.com
Mental Health Awareness Month is over at the end of May, but mental health is a year-round project, one that doesn’t particularly care for “awareness” but that benefits from ongoing self-work, as well as systematic change and holistic methods of healing. Music is just one tool that helps many people feel less alone as they suffer through mental health issues– and shiny, sunny, and honest works of art like Growing Up Is Dead are so important in a time when so many of us are struggling alone.
“GROWING UP IS DEAD are a diary entry. It’s a poem to ourselves that transparently expresses the complexity of our minds. We wanted to create a body of work that explained who we are in hopes that we can show you, the world, that whatever you are dealing with, dealt with… we see you. We feel you. You are not alone. We are all just lost boys and girls wandering through lust, trying to find our way through the world. And in the times of angst and panic, remind yourself that no matter what age you are, growing up is dead.” —Julia Lauren Bullock
Alternating light, campy flourishes with introspective lyrics, heavy bass, and drum-lines reminiscent of early Paramore, Growing Up Is Dead is a burst of energy and fiery rage, perfect for punctuating any melancholy. Songs like “French Boy” would be best when heard in a crowded, sweaty venue, surrounded by a crowd of people leaping up and down, but it’ll also suffice for late-night solo dance parties complete with raucous air guitar.
“Call Me When Your Phone Dies” is another anthem, spunky and fast-moving and held together by an extremely catchy groove. It’s an ode to drunken nights: “Why don’t you call me when your phone dies? I’ll still be ringing in your mind,” Bullock sings, voice filtered through layers of grit and overdrive, and you want to scream right along with her.
“Hyper-Hypo” is one of the more subdued and catchier songs on the album. Lit up with perfectly arranged harmonies, braiding Britney Spears-type pop influences with glittery bursts of digital synthesizer and gritty drums, it’s ready-made for anytime you need to angrily run away from home for the night, even if only in your mind.
Breaking out like a bat out of hell and never losing its strobe-light energy, Growing Up Is Dead is an ode to the sort of angst we never really grow out of, to the magic of pop-punk and the catharsis of music, to riot grrl and ’80s pop, and to hyper-modern production. Whether you’re 7 or a 70-year-old former club kid with just as much rage as you when you were young, Growing Up Is Dead is an ode to everlasting growing pains and the music that will always help us survive them.
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