On the 28th of February, girl in red surprised her listeners by releasing a song without any prior announcement. ‘confession’ is her first new song released after her 2024 sophomore album I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY, and could barely be more different from it, while still being very characteristic for her.
Only counting five lines of lyrics and spanning one minute and twenty-four seconds, the song title encompasses exactly what this song is: an unfiltered, raw, and straight-to-the-point confession of emotions in the moment – starting out about nostalgia and then taking a deeper turn singing “there’s a part of me that feels like I am reaching my end”.
The honest and in-the-moment nature of the song is supported by minimal instruments: mostly plucking on acoustic guitar, with some heavier tones swelling up for the last lines that carry equally heavy words: “There’s a part of me that knows it’s my time to go, I don’t know if I can wake up tomorrow morning and face my soul”. The combination of lyrics sounding like they could be straight from a journal entry with the stripped-down production makes it feel like an emotional musical voice memo from a friend struggling.
What captures one’s interest about the song is not only the heart-wrenching honesty in the lyrics that can touch a listener straight to their core, but also the contrast to her grand album release last year. The song was not announced prior to its release, the song cover an unstaged random life moment captured, and the only explanation of the song comes in the form of a handwritten note, all making this release feel deeply personal, in a way that any release with more notice and fuss around it could not so easily reach.
In the handwritten note shared on release day, girl in red confirms this same feeling, writing “longing for deeper connections, and to be direct with you. to make things smaller and to focus on what really matters. to be fearless with sincerity and to be close to you <3”. This puts context to this release as a reconnection to the core of making and releasing music straight into the hearts of the listener.
To those who have been long-time girl in red listeners, the lyrics mentioning nostalgia couldn’t be more fitting, as this song feels very resembling of where it all started for her all these years ago: just her and her guitar in her bedroom, sharing unfiltered demos and songs on Soundcloud, being open about her thoughts in straight forward lyrics, connecting with the listeners this way.
While it is a natural course for artists to get bigger and change their release process to be more controlled and official along the way, with girl in red mentioning wanting to make things smaller and more direct again, ‘confession’ feels like a very touching and successful step in this direction, showing that a step back can also be a step forward.
Written by: Marieke Weeda
Edited by: Nèri Cliteur
