This album feels like the romance between me and my shadow self,” says Courtney Watkins of Coatie Pop. The band’s debut album, Deathbed (self-released on February 11th) is a rollercoaster of moods—and rightly so. “Most of what was written here was born out of my down emotions,” Watkins explains about her lyrical themes. Alongside her long-time partner and bandmate, Robert, they split the writing process fifty-fifty with the intent to merge genres together such as post-punk, trip-hop, folk and new wave.
Deathbed takes the listener on a journey through musical styles and a melange of emotional intensities—from melancholy to hopeful—with tracks such as “City Song,” whose danceable composition is opposite from the sorrowful and minimalistic song, “Close to God.” The variations on moods feels like a whiplash and much like the complexities of life itself as it ebbs and flows. Stripped down and vulnerable, “Stranger” and “Eleventh” feel incredibly personal, as if Watkins is confessing her darkest secrets.
The album ends with two songs—”Valhalla” and “Who’s Dragging This Corpse Around?”—that are fitting for club speakers and spinning in the dark, even though the latter is about death: “That one is about letting someone pass away… passing away can be beautiful. That’s why this album is called Deathbed and [also] because of a lot of experience I had being around death earlier last year.” Let me go, I’m coming home, Watkins sings as sorrows and desires collide.
Listen to Deathbed below:
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