one of the beautiful things about music is that, at its core, it’s just communication. music is a message that, with the help of a microphone, has been kept alive in some way. and, another beautiful thing about music, is that even though it’s just a message, it can tell you a lot about its messenger. in that way, recorded music is like a diary. a songwriter can revisit their music years later and get some impression of what their lives were like, what their concerns were, and even what inspired them.
oh excuse me, i didn’t see you there. i was busy being pretentious, you see. but while i’m on the subject, let’s talk about Two Headed Girl’s new EP, Resonation.
when Two Headed Girl’s debut EP, With Sadness, came out last year, i was impressed. two songwriting twins, Angelica and Celeste Padua along with their friend Cam Pulaski (Ice Cream Orphan), transformed youth and heartbreak into an excellent release. self-described as “twin-core”, the highlight of the EP is the Paduas’ natural and impassioned harmonies. the frequently dual-delivered vocal lines, paired with mathy guitar lines and punk-tinged bass came together to make With Sadness crackle with energy. the snapshot of Two Headed Girl is striking — it feels like a debut because it has all the excitement of young musicians figuring out exactly what they want to do in real time.
and barely over a year later, Two Headed Girl give us Resonation, and the growth between this EP and With Sadness can’t be overstated. go ahead and pull up Resonation on spotify and give it a listen all the way through. when it’s over, it’ll kick over to a song on With Sadness, and it doesn’t even sound like the same band. and maybe they’re not. on the surface, they’re more confident, better musicians, but deeper than that, Two Headed Girl feel more patient, more willing to take risks, and more serious. if you told me a year ago that this band would release a song almost completely in Spanish, i’d believe you. but if you told me that same song would prominently feature a saxophone and that its lyrics make strong socio-political allusions? i’d wonder if we were talking about the same band.
and that’s what’s so fascinating about music — not only is Two Headed Girl’s Resonation beautifully superb, but it documents how much Angelica, Celeste, and Cam have grown as musicians and artists in such a short time.
here are three of my favorite moments from Resonation:
“Bayamón”: referencing this song above, ” Bayamón” is such a curveball for Two Headed Girl to throw. its jazzy verse rhythms and middle-eight wouldn’t be out of place on a The Mars Volta record! it’s trippy and bold, but every inch of it is earned.
“Don’t Be Sc*red”: this here is one of those songs that, when you hear it live once, it just wont’ leave you. with its opening notes, i instantly recognized “Don’t Be Sc*red” from a previous Two Headed Girl gig. you only need to hear the indelible chorus’s hook once to know exactly how it goes and how to sing along with it.
“Soft Kill”: of the five tracks on Resonation, “Soft Kill” sounds the closest to something on With Sadness. part of that is owed to the killer verses: a choppy guitar part, a bold bass line, and a circular drum pattern make a striking impression. the more mathy elements of With Sadness have been played down on Resonation, so let “Soft Kill” be a reminder of where Two Headed Girl have come from and what they are capable of.
