Blondshell – Violins
Blondshell has announced her third album, Violins, out September 25 on Partisan Records, and shared its title track as the second single, following Heart Has To Work So Hard (W21), which dealt with a friendship curdling into betrayal over a driving, static-laced groove. “Violins” moves somewhere quieter to start, then ends up somewhere just as forceful.
The song opens delicately and builds toward an explosive, hook-heavy chorus, guitar urgency colliding with pop instinct, with a playful record-scratch moment dropped right into the middle of it. Sabrina Teitelbaum sets the song around an ordinary piece of conversation, someone trying to explain that healing isn’t fast or linear, met with a kind of polite confusion from whoever’s listening. It’s a small, specific exchange built to carry something much bigger: the idea that real recovery from anything takes as long as it takes, whether or not anyone around you has the patience for it.
Teitelbaum has called the song the album’s anchor point, and described being drawn to images of tenderness, the small gesture of resting your head on someone’s shoulder, sitting right next to images of violence in the same set of lyrics. “I was inspired by the idea of healing slowly,” she’s said, “and refusing to be rushed by any outside force.” She’s also talked about wanting distance this time from anyone who won’t respect her limits, without quite landing on a hard line about it yet.
The video, directed by Sabra Binder, drops Teitelbaum into a sealed room trying to keep a fawn-shaped ice sculpture from melting, somewhere between McQueen-style sculptural imagery and surrealist theater. Violins is described as built on the same virtuoso hooks and swelling guitars Blondshell’s known for, this time pointed at religion, difficult friendships, and the body rather than the bad-relationship framework of her first two records. Produced again by longtime collaborator Yves Rothman, mixed by Beatriz Artola and mastered by Emily Lazar.
What stands out on “Violins” itself is the patience in the production, it earns its loud moment instead of rushing toward it. I’m curious whether the rest of the record holds that same restraint once it’s all out.
Tour dates:
North America:
- Jul. 2 / Milwaukee, WI / Summerfest
- Aug. 8 / Omaha, NE / Maha Festival
- Oct. 14 / San Diego, CA / Observatory North Park
- Oct. 16 / Los Angeles, CA / The Wiltern
- Oct. 17 / San Francisco, CA / Castro Theatre
- Oct. 19 / Portland, OR / Crystal Ballroom
- Oct. 20 / Seattle, WA / Showbox SoDo
- Oct. 23 / Minneapolis, MN / Varsity
- Oct. 24 / Chicago, IL / Vic Theater
- Oct. 27 / Toronto, ON / Danforth Music Hall
- Oct. 28 / Montreal, QC / Beanfield Theatre
- Oct. 31 / Philadelphia, PA / Union Transfer
- Nov. 3 / Washington, DC / 9:30 Club
- Nov. 6 / New York, NY / Terminal 5 (with Prewn and NoSo)
- Nov. 7 / Boston, MA / House of Blues
Europe:
- Dec. 6 / Amsterdam, Netherlands / Melkweg
- Dec. 7 / Berlin, Germany / Metropol
- Dec. 8 / Brussels, Belgium / Ancienne Belgique
- Dec. 10 / Paris, France / La Gaité Lyrique
UK & Ireland:
- Dec. 12 / Manchester, UK / O2 Ritz
- Dec. 13 / Glasgow, UK / The Old Fruitmarket
- Dec. 15 / London, UK / Roundhouse
- Dec. 17 / Dublin, Ireland / The Academy
