Moving away from previous releases, which have fallen somewhere between folk and indie, Housewife goes headfirst into a grunge, alternative sound on Girl Of The Hour. The Toronto native, aka Brighid Fry, figures out their identity, using this new musical direction to help them. Despite this departure, Housewife’s soft unique vocals, that we’ve come to know and love, still shine through.
Diving in with an anthemic track right off the bat, ‘I Lied’, opens the EP as the first indicator of this genre shift. Tackling the hurdle of being bisexual and deciphering between platonic and romantic interests, Housewife is intrigued by the “idea that straight men and women can’t be friends, or that you can’t be friends with someone you could be attracted to,” because, as they note, “if you’re bi then well, shit! Can’t I have any friends?!”.
It is a concept that they explore with a grunge-pop sound mixed with airy vocals that has helped artists such as Beabadoobee on her rise to the top. In fact, I’d like to start the campaign for Housewife to support Bea on her next tour. They’d be the perfect fit.
On ‘Work Song’, the last single before the EP’s official release, Housewife tries self-improvement. Getting ready to lay all the ‘cards on the table’, they take an upbeat approach to bettering themself. Despite waking up and ghosting their therapist, this track bleeds with optimism. If the catchy chorus doesn’t stick with you, the bridge is sure to be an instant ear worm.
Keeping up the theme of self-reflective lyrics mixed with upbeat melodies, on ‘Life Of The Party’ Housewife explores the assumptions people make about them. They state, ‘I never thought I’d be here / Be the girl of the hour / Life of the party / Total downer’. The juxtaposition of the last two lines represents the conflict between their identity as a performer and who they really are.
“I wanted to write a song about all these misconceptions about me and how hard it is to set people straight. People see me on stage and think that’s me, but it just never has been.”
Whilst Housewife applies it to their unique career as a singer, it also relates to the imposter syndrome that we all get sometimes. It does so in a cathartic way, with the echo-like vocals on ‘I’ and ‘Why’ in the chorus feeling like Housewife is screaming into the void to be heard.
Most of the songs on the EP have already been heard, released slowly over the last few months. Except for one. ‘Matilda’ is a song about the time Housewife lost their bike. But it is also about the bigger metaphor of losing someone or a part of yourself and subsequently feeling ‘stationary’ and unable to move on.
“It’s about the aspect of needing to move on and dealing with loss that was informed by this other big loss in my life.”
The song starts slow, reflective, and is reminiscent of their earlier music. In the pre-chorus, however, Housewife steers the song into a new route with the beat kicking in and introducing more guitars into the mix.
‘Divorce’ holds the most simple but most effective songwriting on the EP. Housewife repeats the line, ‘I’m not the enemy’ over and over for the last minute and a quarter with the guitars getting grittier and louder as it goes on. They screech out, leaving nothing but that line repeating in our own heads. It’s ‘Waiting Room’ by Phoebe Bridgers but with a lot more rock and a lot less tears.
Closing the EP, ‘Wasn’t You’ has an edge, with lyrics such as ‘You make me wanna wring your neck’. Despite their spiteful tone, the lyrics detail the inner battle of wanting someone you wish you didn’t.
“My problem with being bisexual isn’t about being attracted to women, it’s being attracted to men,” says Housewife. They examine this notion with the backing of more of the grungy electric guitars that we’ve heard so far on the EP. The song’s outro feels like a huge culmination of the energy that has built throughout the rest of the tracks. With the last crash of the drums ringing out, the song wraps the EP up perfectly. An EP which has come just in time to take us through the transition into spring with its pop-rock beats and dreamy vocals.