EP // Runnner – Fan On
Post by Misha
If you built scale model for each thing that kept you in bed in the morning, meticulously creating them from wax and papier mache, layering detail upon detail – the precise angle of the sun through the window, the exact frequency of the refrigerator hum, the velocity of the ceiling fan’s rotation – if you did all that perfectly then the diorama created might feel a bit like these songs. If you were to put them on display and take a walk through the darkened halls of the museum after closing time, the muted footfalls might echo in the same way as the drum loop in ‘Super Lotto’. If you were to peer long enough into the corners of the miniaturized kitchen, past the eggshells cooking in the pan with the scramble, past the tiny birthday cards and save-the-dates on the refrigerator door, you might eventually find the sense of calm that has been eluding you in a gently fingerpicked banjo riff.
What I mean is that each track from Fan On feels frozen in a moment, perfectly preserved and intricately detailed. Runnner’s Noah Weinman calls the EP a loose concept album exploring the idea of “household anxiety.” The songs are scenes, vivid shards of a disembodied whole: the bare white, temporary walls of Sublet, the strummy buzz of Eggshell (“this song is about cooking and how my anxiety is usually the worst before noon so just making it through the morning is a struggle,” Noah explains), a Lotto ticket from a lonely 18th birthday, the comforting white noise of a stranger’s fan as you drift off to sleep somewhere new.
The effect of putting all of this under a magnifying glass, of slowing it down to examine each each moment of dread with a degree of attentiveness that can only be described as tender (even loving) is just over 15 minutes of very forgiving anxiety pop. A look at hard edges through gentle eyes. This is a set of songs that offer a way of brightening dark moments by rebuilding them painstakingly from scratch, this time with softer lighting.
Fan On is Runnner‘s first EP since their 2017 debut album, Awash. They will be celebrating its June 7th release with a show at the Bootleg on Tuesday (June 11th). Get tickets here! Fan On is now available on all streaming platforms.
