These are songs about diving in (“Sing Your Life”), about how it feels when people who say they have your back turn their backs on you (“Not My Comrades”), and about trusting your gut. Some of these tunes expose weird, beating hearts, like when Audrey from Little Waist sings “(I Want to Be A) Dyke Wife,” or when Prince rails against a conformist “tourist” approach to life. A couple of tracks deal with the difficulty of trusting someone else in romance, whether that difficulty comes from everyday thought distortions (“Half Empty”), or from navigating past trauma (“Triggering”). Despite emotional defenses, the need to trust bubbles to the surface in “Not in Love” and “Never Make Me Cry.” But sometimes I need “Ms. Wrong,” to remind me to trust the undercurrent that pulls me back from jumping into something that’s not quite right.


Collage by Annie.

Illustration by Minna.

Illustration by Minna.