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1.
Ash 02:27
You pity me and I turn my head Am I upset? Well how would you like me to answer that? The heart the sleeve the cards the chest I do my best And cry till the cat doesn’t look impressed Oh no The living room’s on fire Too bad My coat was on the floor You love me I believe you Please don’t say it anymore No The date was bad the hope was worse Decide I’m cursed Nice guy, one hell of an introvert And you’re beautiful but it’s too bright Undo the light Perfect, I’m soft and you’ve lost your mind Oh no The living room’s on fire Too bad My coat was on the floor You love me I believe you Please don’t say it anymore No Oh no The living rooms on fire Wait until It settles into ash My asbestos-cut confessional Out loud to you at last
2.
The Well 03:18
He breaks the fourth wall, winks into the camera I must’ve missed it poking out the flower pot Whatever film me He can air my grievances I’d do whatever really Just, to be seen with him Terms of endearment loose in definition He calls me sweetheart, almost splits his side They nailed the casting The actress looks a lot like me I hover just above her Touch my sneaker to our cheek And say: Attention is finite The well won’t be full If it is for a minute Hope you did it alone And mold grows from missing His laugh on the phone The well only fills on its own Turn on the AC open up the window Just like a princess, I run up the bill And mix the breezes Shiver like a little dog You wanna fuck me And I wanna read your palm My brain is stupid all the nerves are fraying Pink like a salmon swimming underneath my hair I must’ve known him from a lifetime way before I think I was a customer I think he owned the store And said: Attention is finite The well won’t be full If it is for a minute Hope you did it alone And mold grows from missing His laugh on the phone The well only fills on its own He holds my hand in contempt Says the second meanest thing he’s ever said O’ tender fistbump goodnight Squints like I can’t even touch his knuckles right Attention is finite The well won’t be full If it is for a minute Hope you did it alone And mold grows from missing His laugh on the phone The well only fills on its Well only fills on its Well only fills on its own
3.
Altitude 02:56
Waiting at the gate the say “the plane’s too hot to fly” And “folks we know and folks we’re sorry But it’s 85 degrees inside” “Too hot for who?” I think Like 85 is painless If I’m cozy slowly dozing off to seat-back entertainment Wake up we’re over Akron A place I’ve never been Just an hour north and east from Where I used to sleep with him What good does the altitude do When I’m taller than ever and tiny to you What good are the tailwinds today When I’m almost always facing the wrong way Lowering the landing gear and putting up the trays And folks it’s 40 in Manhattan Folks we hope you’ve had a pleasant day Eyeing on the cabin crew Who patiently deplane us Through the gridlock in the aisle that the guy behind me finds outrageous Long week and I’m exhausted Missed you but not a lot So he took off my newest dress in Austin at the Marriott What good does the altitude do If I’m taller than ever and tiny to you What good are the tailwinds today When I’m almost always facing the wrong way
4.
Need Me 03:32
Please explain the movie to me You saw I watched it through my hands I can’t bear the bloodshed but you can Ahhh Our hero hits the ground it’s over Just the carnage you don’t mind You’ve always been a braver man than I Doesn’t have to be A dichotomy But either or is easier than both Lock eyes i know confidence is key If you knew me better you’d need me It’s big talk and a resolute belief That if you knew me better you’d need me We could play a show together I’ll go first and warm the crowd You’re standing by the soundboard looking proud Ahh I unplug and join the public Hustling to get up front You dedicate the set to me, I’m done It’s not a bad walk home But late to do alone You offer me your company, we start Lock eyes I know confidence is key And if you knew me better you’d need me It’s big talk and a resolute belief That If you knew me better you’d need me Take me out of my apartment Any place that we can chat You’re closer than your brother to your dad You’ll get wine and I’ll get water Red is fine the white’s not great Decide if I’m the city you’re the state For conversation’s sake Is that a vanity plate Or a lucky way the letters got arranged Lock eyes I know confidence is key And if you knew me better you’d need me It’s big talk and a resolute belief That If you knew me better you’d need me
5.
Bug 04:57
I’m not your girlfriend But I’m a lot of little things Like the bug inside the bathtub With wet wings Like a play Within a play Within a play Within a scene Or the look you shot your father When he asked if I would sing Oh come on Just one song I’m not your baby But I’m a lot of moving parts Like a piston in an engine Or the whole car Like my hand In transit landing On the handle of your jaw Like the work it takes to keep me At the length of both your arms I can go Just say so Actually if you’re around come by It’s late but if you’re awake then so am I And I can’t cut it out I’m not my envy But I’m a bunch of stuff instead Like the top sheet in a tangle At the bed’s end Like the weeds grown out the sidewalk In a cluster from the crack Like my fist inside my pocket When you talk to me like that He persists Just one kiss Actually if you’re around come by It’s late but if you’re awake then so am I And I can’t cut it out What would you do to me If you could do anything to me What would you do to me If you could do anything to me What would you do to me If you could do anything to me What would you do to me If you could do anything To me

about

We like to think of diaries as windows into the psyche, but just as often, a diary is a trap. There’s a danger in seeing those padlocked pages as static or inert—experiences pinned down like butterflies under glass, offering faint clues into what were once restless, fluttering things. But a frozen insect only ever tells one kind of story, and a diary only ever gives you one angle; they can disfigure memory as much as they preserve it.

As a songwriter, Brooklyn, NY’s Annie Blackman has always been keenly aware of that tension. Her lyrics might enfold multiple perspectives and narrative asides, or double back and counteract themselves, leaving specific interpretation up to the listener. Through comedy, self-criticism, and meta-reflection, Blackman lends dimension to memories of whirlwind crushes and deflated dreams.

Born and raised in Montclair, NJ, Blackman learned how to play guitar at age 12 and began penning original songs as a teen. In high school, she self-recorded and self-released Blue Green, an ambitious collection of heartfelt chord progressions and tender themes. She spent her college years at Kenyon College in the flatlands of central Ohio. There, she self-released Laundry Room Songs in her freshman year and leaned into TikTok, amassing a loyal following of like-minded fans. Her experiences throughout those formative years, the inherent awkwardness of early adulthood, and post-grad life back in NY informed what would eventually become her debut album, 2022’s All of It. Called “witty and tongue in cheek” by Uproxx, with FLOOD praising her songs “spun from the raw emotional tendons of real-life scenes,” All of It cemented Blackman as a purveyor of bite-sized time capsules put to the beat of engaging indie folk.

Blackman’s new EP, Bug, is the rarest sort of diary, a collection of songs that privileges what’s messy and true over any perfect image of the past. This is part of what makes her such an expert chronicler of what you might call the “situationship”—the romantic posture that’s neither here nor there, that refuses to be pinned down.

She headed into a proper recording studio for the first time ever, working with engineer and mixer Allen Tate of San Fermin at his Better Company Studios in Brooklyn, NY. Joined by drummer Zac Coe and produced with longtime collaborator and guitarist/bassist Evan Rasch (Skullcrusher, Runnner), these stories find Blackman more or less where All of It left off—a no less clear-eyed a look at post-college anxiety, but its scale is smaller, tethered more to whispered conversations in Brooklyn bedrooms than the wide, unknowable horizon. She lingers on overclocked AC units, tangled top sheets, bugs in pre-war bathtubs.

“Ash,” a vivid take on a bad date with “one hell of an introvert,” ends with an address to an entirely different listener: “My asbestos-cut confessional/Out loud to you at last,” Blackman sings, turning an admission into a confrontation, and further complicating an already fraught dynamic. The delicate finger-picking of an acoustic guitar dances alongside a woebegone slide, vacillating between folk and pop.

On “The Well,” she plays with that same drama in the rise and fall of her vocals, the gently tumbling drums that shadow this tale of confused longing. “​​The hook, “the well only fills on its own” refers to the fact that I can only be actually happy if it’s coming from within me, not some outside force or person,” Blackman says of the song’s theme.

For Annie Blackman, the idea of the bug represents “a play within a play within a scene”—another nod to those frames within frames, a gesture of distance and dimension. “I’m not your girlfriend/But I’m a lot of little things,” she sings on the title track, channeling the observational power of Katy Kirby and the plaintive, fairytale fantasies of early Taylor Swift. The EP’s climax arrives as Blackman closes with a repeated question to a lover, at once soft and urgent, earthbound and ecstatic: “What would you do to me/If you could do anything to me?” It adds up to something that’s as transportive as anything Blackman has ever written, the experience of captured memories at their richest and most alive.

credits

released April 28, 2023

Music & lyrics by Annie Blackman
Produced by Evan Rasch
Engineered & mixed by Allen Tate at Better Company Studios, Brooklyn, NY
Mastered by Carl Saff, Chicago, IL
Cover by Tonje Thilesen

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Annie Blackman Montclair, New Jersey

singer-songwriter

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