Indie pop from Vita and the Woolf

Vita and the Woolf, the alias of singer-songwriter Jen Pague, brings us the brand new song ‘Confetti’ accompanied by a video premiered by WXPN’s The Key. It’s the third single following ‘Operator’ and ‘Mess Up’ from her upcoming album Anna Ohio, moved to August 21 via Tender Loving Empire.

In discussing Anna Ohio’s ‘Confetti’, the singer says, “The downfall. Anna, waking up, fucking up, partying too much, going on a bender. Staying up till 4 in the morning, drunk texting her ex, working a job she hates. It’s also the realisation that if she leaves this life she’s created for herself, she will miss her friends, family, everything she has ever known. Anna, the partier, the drunk, the loud mouth – is ready for a change.”

Anna Ohio is a fictional character however, the album is a very real pilgrimage of self-discovery. The LP’s interconnected songs tell a self-referential story about a flawed but strong character striving for reinvention.

As Anna, Jen Pague’s dreamlike examination of life under late-stage capitalism (‘Home’, ‘Auntie Anne’s Waitress’) and desire for escape (‘Operator’) are somehow more real than reality: they’re a direct line out from a soul-searching heart and mind. The album is both patient and hook-filled. The understated guitar work echoes Elliott Smith, and the inventive drum patterns of Pague’s longtime bandmate and friend Adam Shumski give the songs a rare rhythmic depth.

The album is a remarkably intimate pop record packed with both electric imagery and deep vulnerability, Anna Ohio is a magic dance that oscillates between empowering anthems and open-hearted diary entries. The mellow moments support the explosive ones; the loving lyrical details support the big themes.

The album feels like facing an ego, killing it, and then rebuilding, or confronting addiction, depression, and self-doubt through the overhaul of one’s personality, represents the first time Pague has written and recorded an album that executes her vision exactly.

It’s what Pague, who recently moved to Los Angeles, has been driving at since she broke into the Philadelphia music scene at the age of 20, lugging her keyboard around and sneaking into bars to play open mics: a vulnerable, honest album that disregards genre conventions in favour of pure expression. Where her 2017 album Tunnels brought stadium-level energy on almost every track, Anna Ohio is an exercise in subtlety and restraint.

Watch the video for Confetti below

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