BLONDSHELL IS DONE EXPLAINING HERSELF / GRANADA THEATER / 05.25.27
Sabrina Teitelbaum brings Blondshell to Granada Theater with Violins, a record that pushes beyond disastrous romance and into friendship, forgiveness, violence, tenderness and the harder question of what deserves to stay in your life.
– JAMBALOO EDITORIAL TEAM
There was a point, not particularly long ago, when Blondshell could be described by placing a few familiar names around her.
The guitars had some nineties in them. The choruses were enormous without becoming anonymous. Sabrina Teitelbaum wrote with the directness of somebody telling you something they probably shouldn’t, then let a distorted guitar finish the sentence.
Those comparisons are becoming less useful.
Violins, released in September, finds Teitelbaum widening the emotional frame again. The early Blondshell songs often caught her in the middle of the damage. This record is more interested in what happens afterward: difficult friendships, forgiveness, religion, the body, and the uncomfortable way tenderness can exist beside cruelty.
The guitars still do plenty of work.
Produced again with Yves Rothman, Violins feels more physical than anything Blondshell has made before, with songs recorded to leave room for the band to move inside them. “Heart Has To Work So Hard” turns its attention toward the wreckage of friendship rather than romance. “Lucky” makes insomnia sound almost weightless. The title track puts violence and gentleness beside one another without pretending the contradiction can be solved.
That matters because Blondshell is increasingly becoming a proper rock band in public.
