TUNES // The Ballet – 20

Art that captures the vulnerability to old pain with intense newness is something really special. The art I mean is not painful art, but it’s not alive in blissful ignorance either. It captures a timeless clarity that I think maybe can only be accessed through this very particular kind of art. Which is cool.

This weekend I went to see Booksmart, the Olivia Wilde coming of age / last party of high school / friendship movie. There were a lot of things I loved about it – the reimagining of high school as heartbreaking in the right ways instead of in cruel and terrible ways, the queering of the format, the near-perfect dialogue. It made me happy in a very uncomplicated way.

I loved thinking about high school as having existed in this world, even though it never has and probably never will. It’s important to be able to rewrite your story. Make it cathartic, sweeter, funnier, empowering. Make it more. Make it mean something proportional to the space it takes up in your body.

’20’ is perhaps my favorite song from Matchy Matchy, an album full of songs which rewrite moments to reflect the magnitude of their ripples outward. The ways in which they were and are and have not yet been felt.

Buy Matchy Matchy, The Ballet‘s sophomore album, here via Fika Recordings.