After a long delay due to the COVID pandemic, girl is red is now releasing her official debut album, if I could make it go quiet, and it is definitely worth the wait. Produced by Ulven, the album expands on the style that defined her early output, taking her bedroom pop songs and shooting them straight into the stratosphere. As big as the sounds on the album are, the emotions Ulven displays here are equally immense.

This seismic shift from her past work comes right off the top with the track “Serotonin”. Through her songwriting, Ulven explores her mental health and here she does in the most honest of ways. The song is set to a massive backing track that is equal parts rock and, interestingly, dubstep. Ulven even raps on the track, singing, “I get intrusive thoughts like cutting my hands off/Like jumping in front of a bus/Like how do I make this stop/When it feels like my therapist hates me?/Please don’t let me go crazy” and her openness is even more impressive than the song’s colossal production. Everything on if I could make it go quiet is colossal. The songs all coalesce around Ulvin’s take on infidelity, such as on “Did You Come?”, where she sings, “Was she good? Just what you like/Did you cum? How many times?/Tell the truth, wait, nevermind”. Loneliness, on “horneylovesickmess” with the lyrics, “Like it’s been months since I’ve had sex/I’m just a horny little love sick mess”. Ulven’s interpretation of these feelings show someone who is quite self aware and willing to poke a little fun at herself, while still managing to channel emotional gravitas.

At only 22, Ulven’s talent and emotional awareness seem well beyond her years. The production she choses to use on her music is appropriately bright but it is her songwriting, her pensive and genuine words, that really shine brightest. It’s only been a few years of girl in red releasing music and in that short period of time Ulven has shown remarkable growth. While it is shocking enough that if I could make it go quiet is just her debut album, it is exciting to see where she will go from here.

Order if I could make it go quiet by girl in red HERE