I was excited to hear Eliza McLamb’s new album Going Through It after loving her 2022 song Pulp. Her lyrics are sophisticated and self-aware in this album as she reflects the past and present moments of her life: “Losing is so long/All my love stuck in a time that will always be gone” – from Before, a song which reminds me of Sufjan Stevens’ work. Glitter, Mythologize Me and Modern Woman undoubtedly feel like the bops of the album. Glitter is a song about caring for a friend in an unhealthy relationship, containing the blunt and compelling lyrics “I wanna kill your boyfriend” and “Everytime/that you say he loves me/I say that’s not what love means.” Mythologize Me is a fun, sarcastic song about wanting boys to, for lack of a better term, mythologize you – This song feels like a self-aware anthem that most young girls can probably relate to, with the amazing lyric “All I can do is fantasize/About how you fantasize about me.” To be honest, it does feel like “What would I ever do without men?” is sort of the wrong conclusion to this song that I think is, at heart, more about how we view ourselves as women. But the knowingly toxic, funny energy of this song is great and something that I’m not sure has been done before–It feels like something Soccer Mommy would write in an alternate universe where she’s a bit more unhinged. As much as I love the upbeat songs on this album, I think the song 16 is my favorite–The lo-fi, telephone vocal and dark synth of this one song brings the vibe of the entire album into new territory, and I’d love to hear more songs like that. What really stands out to me about McLamb is her ability to write cryptic, beautiful lyrics like “I’ll come later with a hammer and break open my burden” (16) and “Fake omnipotence so I can crawl back into bed” (Pulp).