Deadbeat Girl's debut EP What Will It Take? delivers five incisive, heart-rending tracks that will leave you longing for more.
Reviewed by Alex "Ash" Han
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Stream this project via Deadbeat Girl's Linktree page! Also available there are the links to some of the music videos associated with this project, so definitely check those out as well!
ALL OF US ON THE EIGHTH FLOOR come from humble beginnings, but every once in a blue moon, one MTech student surfaces from the miasmic depths of the streaming algorithm with a breakthrough song that exposes them to a wider audience for the first time—a moment which marks the beginning of a long upwards journey towards the distant prospect of fame. It's not often it happens, but it's usually quite the cause for celebration; our small community can oftentimes be quite diffuse and spread-out, but when someone does strike gold (i.e. streams), the news can fuel days' worth of excited eighth-floor chatter. Though Valentina Olson, perhaps better known under her artist moniker Deadbeat Girl, left MTech last year in favor of Gallatin, her steadily-growing online presence, visible through her constantly-expanding fanbases on Instagram and TikTok, as well as her 30,000 monthly listeners on Spotify at the time of this article's publication—not to mention her surprise appearance at a Brooklyn concert playing guitar for none other than girl in red last year—has granted her a certain reverence amongst the MTech community. Ever since I arrived in MTech myself, Valentina has carried a reputation built on her proclivity for catchy, hard-hitting songwriting rendered through a uniquely anguished and raw artistic presentation—a striking combination which immediately gave her music its own distinctive stamp. So many of us student musicians exist in a perpetual state of feeling around in the dark, trying to find out precisely who we are as artists, and yet Valentina felt like a fully-realized artist from the very first time I heard her music. In a few decisive strokes, she established who she was and what she was here to do with a remarkable artistic clarity that speaks to the strength of her creative vision—one that I hoped would get a chance to come even more into focus with the release of her debut EP.
Preceded by the release of its lead single, "Another Day", in September of last year, What Will It Take? represents a long-awaited debut project from a truly exciting titan of an artist. Clocking in at five tracks, spanning 16 minutes and 39 seconds, What Will It Take? promises nothing more than a momentary peek into Deadbeat Girl's universe, a mere taste of an artistic tapestry which myself, alongside the 30,000 other Spotify listeners bumping this EP, have been waiting a very long time to dive into. Heading in, I hoped that the project would provide enough new material that showcases Deadbeat Girl's trademark strengths to give itself the longevity it needs to hold us over until Valentina follows it up with something new. Nevertheless, in any case, What Will It Take? presents a rock-solid collection of songs that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Deadbeat Girl absolutely has what it takes to continue to succeed, both at Gallatin and undoubtedly far beyond.
"I started writing [What Will It Take?] while I was in high school living in South Florida in a very Catholic, conservative hometown. A lot of my songs are about the aches and pains of teenager-hood but also the aches and pains of a queer person growing up in an unaccepting environment." –Valentina Olson a.k.a. Deadbeat Girl
The EP's first track, "Take Me Home", was also released as a single in January of this year, and opens the project on a decidedly indie-adjacent pop punk note. Opening on charming layers of arpeggiated guitar picking and a loosely '80s new wave drum groove that reminds me a bit of "I Melt With You" by Modern English, Valentina sings what at first glance puts up a convincing masquerade as a straightforward love song, but upon closer inspection reveals suffocating, anxious undertones that point towards themes of toxicity and emotional dependency. Valentina's vocals here are detached, veiled to an extent behind a curtain of reverb and delay that lends her vocal performance a certain obscurity. Nonetheless, Valentina delivers the lines with her trademark brand of pathos—straddling the line between apathetic disaffectedness and overwhelming passion in a way only she can pull off. The refrain of "Don't let me go, don't let me go/I love you so, I love you so" is beautiful in its austerity, and is no less catchy as a result, especially when Valentina's vocals soar over those higher passages. Backed by an almost-cutesy blend of strummed acoustic campfire chords and subtle electric guitar-based counterpoint over handclaps and tambourine, the sonic palette evokes something timeless for me, at once retro and modern, which furthers the Modern English resemblances for me. The hook does suffer a little in the mixing department, though, as the long reverb on the lead vocal tends to disproportionately accentuate sibilant sounds and smear them out over several hundred milliseconds, which sometimes causes the lead vocal to disappear a little—not a huge deal, but it started to get a little distracting on repeated listens. Nonetheless, "Take Me Home" makes for an exciting opening to the EP that introduces the listener to the unique conveyance of the blend between anxiety and romance upon which Deadbeat Girl builds her craft.
"…all of these songs started in my childhood bedroom using my acoustic guitar and my mini bedroom studio to create demos for each song that I would later bring to my producer in South Florida, Ferny Coipel, to perfect and polish." –Valentina Olson a.k.a. Deadbeat Girl
The EP's second track and second single, "She Loves Me", slows things down a little, as we get an opening of strummed acoustic guitar chords that backs a simple lead acoustic melody out of the right channel. Valentina's vocals once again provide a uniquely gripping performance, as here, she sounds like she's on the verge of tears, choking out each line with a wavering scratchiness to her voice that lends the song a certain level of bedroom-pop vulnerability that only adds to the charm of the whole thing. The first chorus brings a vocal melody that soars into the upper fourth octave over lush, layered acoustic guitar chords and the unmistakable twang of a banjo in the back of the sound field, which I thought made for a really nice addition to the song's folksy singer-songwriter vibe. These melodies never feel like static loops, and continue to evolve and undulate over the course of the song, which is something I really appreciated; in general, the dynamic yet sparse soundscape of this song was really well-managed, and little touches like the single electric piano notes and occasional percussive hits recessed far into the back corners of the stereo field always felt natural and never out-of-place. Though the track approaches five minutes in length, those minutes fly by, and the emotional trajectory provided by "She Loves Me" feels wholly earned and satisfying.
"These Walls" is a new track that opens on ominous triplet finger-picked acoustic guitar passages soaked in a claustrophobic reverb. Soon, we begin the track with a soft four-on-the-floor kick that lends the track a sense of subtle, pulsing momentum. Masked behind a dense, yet relatively short reverb, Valentina sings about the feeling of being trapped and having to constantly chase after someone. Once again, her detached vocal performance makes for a perfect parallel with the track's narrative themes of emotional turmoil and struggle, but also with the soundscape's distinctly closed-in and suffocating vibe. The guitar-based soundscape becomes occasionally punctuated by sound effects: a burst of white noise here, an 808-style clap soaked in reverb there… the overall vibe resolves into something rather desolate and bleak as a result, conveying a sort of big, empty space despite the track's sense of claustrophobia. The instrumental is packed full of cool production & arrangement tricks; acoustic guitar notes suddenly reverse and swell into themselves, synth pads seamlessly interweave themselves through the soundscape before turning tail, duplicates and chops of Valentina's vocals echo distantly like tortured wails from just beyond the horizon. I really appreciate the attention to detail that went into this instrumental; it's clear that every second was meticulously crafted, and the resultant vibe is nothing short of incredible. Straddling a sort of in-between territory indebted to singer-songwriter acoustic pop that also absorbs loose influences from ambient techno and chillwave, "These Walls" is thoroughly haunting and hair-raising, and it's genuinely unlike anything I've ever heard before. Make no mistake: this is no typical alt-rock cut. It's something else entirely, and it may have just carved itself a niche amongst one of my favorite tracks I've ever covered on this blog. Seriously—go listen to this thing. It's absolutely nuts and Valentina, her producers, and engineers deserve all the credit for creating something this uniquely striking and incredible.
"As a person who has grown up listening to all sorts of alternative music in my house, I’ve drawn inspiration from The Neighborhood, Death Cab for Cutie, girl in red, Phoebe Bridgers, Paramore, Foo Fighters, and many more alternative, rock, indie, pop trailblazers in this debut EP." –Valentina Olson a.k.a. Deadbeat Girl
It's hard to believe that it's been almost two years since I heard "Another Day" for the first time, and yet, when that familiar opening guitar/piano riff washed over me once again, it hit with all the energy and bombast it had greeted me with during that Collegium listening session all those months ago. How much can I say about this track that hasn't already been said? It's incredible. The atmosphere of the track remains untouchable, providing an ethereal mix of reverb-heavy acoustic elements and in-your-face hard rock in a perfectly-executed intermarriage that hammers home the track's themes of perseverance in the face of suicidal ideation to a tee, meshing influences from iDKHOW to Paramore and back again seamlessly. Valentina's soaring vocals over the crashing walls of guitars and cymbals make for a moment of unparalleled catharsis, perhaps intensified by the song's newfound context as the fourth track on the EP. Indeed, the track's final chorus, where Valentina really lets the vocals rip, hits that much harder now that we've had three other tracks prior to this point in order to build the tension. In short, "Another Day" remains just as strong as the day I first heard it, and is made perhaps even stronger in context with the rest of the EP. I truly don't think I'll ever get bored of this song, and something tells me I can keep coming back to it for weeks or months or years and still be absolutely swept away by Valentina's decisive and evocative rendering of what it's like to struggle with thoughts of suicide. It's truly a track that captures something unforgettable for me, and I do fully believe that you're actively missing out if you haven't heard it yet.
"These
songs are a time capsule of my personal life experiences for the past
two years and it’s nothing but honest and genuine. I created this
project for queer people and anyone who is going through emotional
turmoil to find a home in… [What Will It Take?] is my most vulnerable yet, for sure." –Valentina Olson a.k.a. Deadbeat Girl
The last track on the EP, "More - Demo", feels a bit like a bonus track to me, perhaps due to its categorization as a demo, and its notably DIY vibe as compared to the rest of the project, which feels very much like a product of the studio. In contrast, "More" opens with a distant false-start take wherein Valentina stops to ask if we're recording before continuing on, over a healthy amount of white noise and tape hiss. The track definitely feels like a demo in terms of scale, consisting solely of a single acoustic guitar, Valentina's trademark plaintive vocals, and a healthy amount of reverb. The track remains small in scale until what I assume to be the chorus section enters for the first time (with only a minute and forty-three seconds of runtime, divining song structure can be hard sometimes!), when some incredible sweeping vocal layers enter, creating some huge, lush harmonies that made for a really nice listen. Soon, though, the vocals fade away, until we're left with just the acoustic guitar, and a soft exhale from Valentina that signals the end of this project. Even so, I can only hope that "More - Demo" was included on this EP to serve as a teaser for what will eventually be a fully-completed & released track, since it bears all the hallmarks of a Deadbeat Girl track to me—the austere yet atmospheric presentation, a catchy yet heart-rending chorus, a distinctly apocalyptic yet somehow hopeful mood that feels like we're watching Valentina bare her soul. It's a shame there's only a demo here, at present, since I feel like we're looking at the skeleton of a song that could easily stack up against "Take Me Home" or "Another Day" once it's been completed. The emotional magnetism and forceful passion that for me serves as a trademark stamp of Deadbeat Girl's music is absolutely present in "More - Demo", and I hope it's not long before Valentina gives us just that - more.
What Will It Take? brings a long list of positives to the table during its short sixteen minutes of runtime. First and foremost, it's a resoundingly successful showcase for the songwriting talents of one Valentina Olson, who puts on a tour-de-force performance over this EP's five tracks, capturing head-over-heels romantic capitulation and spiraling anxiety in equal measure. She maintains a very high standard of quality and resolutely sticks to it over the course of the entire EP: every lyric feels like nothing less than Valentina's best, yet also manages to feel like a true and authentic expression of her inner turmoil. I think that dichotomy ultimately forms the project's biggest strength—Valentina never seems like she's straying away from being true to herself, and the consistent incisiveness of her deep-cutting lyrics reveals the strength and precision of her conception of who she is as an artist. Deadbeat Girl is unapologetically flawed, unflinchingly vulnerable, down-to-earth and human through and through, and that contributes to a hugely relatable artist persona universal enough to resonate with 30,000 people at present and untold numbers to come.
This EP also feels thoroughly professional in its presentation. The production, mixing, and mastering all boast a level of polish that allows the songs at the core of this thing to really come through and shine. The use of reverb to create atmosphere on this EP was also really well-done, in my opinion; it's easy to overuse reverb in pursuit of creating a unique vibe, but here, it's used tastefully, with just enough of a sense of space to further the songs' suffocating & claustrophobic nature without resulting in significant loss of clarity. Aside from the occasional minor mixing hiccup here and there, most notably the reverb tending to gravitate towards & latch onto sibilant sounds on "Take Me Home" and "Another Day", this EP sounds excellent, and thoroughly subverts the often rough-around-the-edges nature that so many debut projects tend to (inadvertently) adopt.
Safe to say that What Will It Take? is a juggernaut of a debut project that sets the bar extremely high for Deadbeat Girl's artistry. I do, however, have one major criticism of the project—which admittedly has as much to do with the songs that are not on the EP as with the songs that are. In total, this EP contains five songs, of which one is a demo, and three of those songs have already been released as singles—namely, "Take Me Home", "She Loves Me", and "Another Day". In the case of such a short project, these songs already having been released became something of a double-edged sword; while I did find that the sheer catharsis of "Another Day" was somewhat elevated by the three tracks that came before, I also felt that my listening experience as to the opening of this EP was damaged somewhat by the fact that "Take Me Home" and "She Loves Me" were already tracks that I had plenty of time to become familiar with. It took until "These Walls" to really get a taste of something new, and that was a shame, because I had come into this project really hoping to get a greater & more comprehensive sense of who Deadbeat Girl is as an artist. In that sense, What Will It Take? simply delivers more of the strengths we know; those of us who knew Valentina as an incisive, passionate songwriter will come out of this project feeling more affirmed in that belief, but those of us who wanted to see what else she could deliver may either have to settle for "These Walls" and "More - Demo" for the foreseeable future, or continue to resolutely wait until the next Deadbeat Girl project. Having said that, I think the lack of content on this project is indicative of Valentina's commitment to a "quality over quantity" sort of ethos. For all I know, maintaining the very high standard of quality set by the five songs that we got may very well not have been possible at all had she felt compelled to finish and include a sixth track, or a seventh. Perhaps it's better this way, and in any case, I have no choice but to have faith that whatever Valentina brings us next will satisfy that desire and keep evolving her music in new and exciting directions.
So in the end, I suppose the final takeaway from What Will It Take? goes something like this: This EP showcases a tight collection of five tracks, all of which are universally strong, heavy hitters of alternative & indie rock that truly could not have been written by anyone else. If you're looking for a songwriter who can cut right to the heart of what it's like to struggle with balancing love for another person with your own inner demons, then there's very few who can fulfill that role quite like Deadbeat Girl. And, if, like me, you fell in love with "Another Day" during Collegium all those months ago, then you'll definitely find something to love about this new project. But even so, the question that invariably follows all debut projects—"so what next?"—burns especially intensely here, and the familiarity of Deadbeat Girl's unique, tortured brand of alt rock only partially scratches the itch for more of her music. What Will It Take? itself thus poses the question: if not one of my favorite debut projects I've ever come across, then what will it take to get enough Deadbeat Girl? Only Valentina can answer that question, and I will wait with bated breath until she does.
Personal enjoyment score: 8.5 out of 10
Standout tracks: "These Walls", "Another Day"… but seriously, just take 16 minutes and listen to the whole thing. You won't regret it.
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