Guitar-girl music is having a very good run.
Beabadoobee, Clairo, Gracie Abrams, Maisie Peters – there is a whole lane of young artists making intimate, diaristic songs with guitars pushed right to the front.
You know the kind, the writing is a little conversational, the production is soft around the edges, and the whole thing tends to feel close enough that you could be sitting in the room while it is happening.
Dllfces belongs somewhere in that world, but her version leans a little more alternative. Which we like. A lot.
There is less interest in turning the guitar into decoration around a pop song, and more trust in letting it carry the whole thing.
That is obvious from the opening moments of her five-track EP, I Told You I Was Sick.
Produced by Emile Antonell, I Told You I Was Sick leaves plenty of room around the songs, letting Dllfces’ guitar and vocals sit right at the centre.
‘Seven Minutes’ starts with acoustic guitar and voice, and stays there.
It is a confident move.
You keep waiting for the track to suddenly expand into a bigger production, but it never really does, and that restraint ends up being one of its strengths.
There is subtle reverb on the vocal and a few small effects threaded through the track, enough to give it an airy pop quality without losing the feeling that someone is playing the song a few metres away from you.
Given how much overproduced music lands across our desk, it is refreshing to hear something that trusts the song this much.
‘Read Between’ follows with the same guitar-led sensibility, while ‘…In Another Life’ pushes further into the inward, slightly uneasy mood that starts creeping across the EP.
And this is where I Told You I Was Sick begins revealing what it is actually doing.
The EP was written around The Lovers tarot card.
At first glance, that sounds like a pretty straightforward romantic concept.
But The Lovers is not simply about finding your person. It is also about compatibility, alignment, values and the decisions that come with attaching yourself to another human being.
That tension runs right through these five tracks.
The opening songs live closer to the upright side of the card: attraction, intimacy, possibility.
By ‘…In Another Life’, doubt starts entering the picture.
Then ‘Point of View’ gets properly consumed by love.
It is one of the strongest tracks on the EP because Dllfces understands how quickly romance can start messing with your perspective.
From there, the tarot concept starts doing some heavier lifting.
Flip The Lovers over and you get misalignment, communication breakdowns, incompatible priorities and that uncomfortable feeling that wanting somebody might not be enough to make the relationship work.
That is where closer ‘Object of Affection’ lands.
The romantic haze has started wearing off.
Reality is back in the room.
What began as a collection of intimate love songs ends up feeling closer to a relationship autopsy: not necessarily about love disappearing, but about recognising that love and compatibility are two very different things.
That gives I Told You I Was Sick a really satisfying arc.
Musically, Dllfces still shares some DNA with the current guitar-girl wave. There are shades of Beabadoobee in the softness of her vocal, bits of Gracie Abrams in the diaristic writing, and the stripped-back intimacy of Clairo is never too far away.
But the guitar and her unique vocals pull her somewhere alltogther more alternative.
Kate Bush is not really a sonic comparison, because Dllfces does not sound much like Kate Bush at all, but there is something similarly encouraging about hearing a young artist who already seems interested in building her own language.
I Told You I Was Sick starts like a love story.
By the end, it is about the much harder bit: figuring out what to do once you realise love might not be enough.
Listen to I Told You I Was Sick here.
