“Fridays used to be for you.”
Sometimes a song just hits right from the very first line. Lucia & the Best Boys‘ “Perfectly Untrue” is one of those songs.
The Glasgow-based band is a relatively new discovery for me (as of this weekend, in fact), but a brief dive into their back catalog proves I’ll be staying along for the ride, especially given their latest release on Friday (September 11).
“Perfectly Untrue” is featured on the group’s upcoming four-song EP The State of Things, out on October 9, and the follow-up to “Let Go,” a gorgeous slow burn released earlier in the year.
The song was created alongside Poppy collaborator Chris Greatti, and is all about “pretending to be fine and trying to be fine when you are actually not fine,” as Lucia Fairfull pointed out on Instagram.
“Lately I’ve gotten good at lying / Fine on the outside, but inside, I’m dying…”
If that isn’t an absolute mood for 2020, I don’t know what is.
“I’ll dance until I die, don’t know what else to do / I pretend I’m perfect, but I’m perfectly untrue,” Lucia croons alongside a propulsive guitar.
What a chorus, honestly! It’s so incredibly instant and heartwrenching (the melancholy of those “oo-OO-oo“-s), it sounds like a smash penned by The Cardigans, with a R.E.M. flair. (It also vaguely reminds me of an obscure Swedish band Paris, and their album Secrets on Tape.)
The song’s got just the right amount of haunted energy and imagery – vanishing, shadows, the flicker of a candle, and all those ghostly “oo-oo-oo“-s – for the approaching spooky season as well. It’s like being really sad and single at a Halloween party, all dressed up in gold, not knowing what else to do.
“‘Perfectly Untrue’ was written a couple of weeks after I wrote ‘Let Go.’ This recording is in its original form, which Chris Greatti and myself powered on an all-nighter ’til 4 a.m., as I was leaving LA the next day. It’s funny to listen to them both back to back as it shows the many mixed emotions I was going through during heartbreak, feeling strong and capable one minute, then distraught and confused the next. The only way through seemed to be to pretend that everything was fine or perfect whereas in reality it was ‘Perfectly Untrue,'” she explained to Dork.
“I can definitely say now looking back that this is the worst solution ever, but also I know that it is just a coping mechanism that people use as escapism. When you are in a weird or dark headspace you see many versions of yourself that you didn’t even know existed. ‘Perfectly Untrue’s ‘happy-go-lucky’ sound portrays the fake joy I pushed myself to feel in order to avoid the sad truth, which is displayed in the lyrics that are also coated in glitter and glamour – dressed up in gold and dance until I die.”
We’re all just playing pretend, not knowing what else to do – especially in this present moment. And even if Lucia, the Best Boys and the rest of us are quietly dying inside, well, uh…at least it sounds this good.
This song is featured on the MuuTunes Spotify playlist.
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Photo credit: Sweet Jane Recordings
