Fenne Lily's "Hypochondriac" Reckons with Emotional Fallout
It's the budding singer-songwriter's debut on seminal indie label Dead Oceans.
For those who know firsthand, feeling emotions to their extremes can create some painful results.
Bristol upstart Fenne Lily understands this conflict well, and the folk-pop singer-songwriter states it beautifully on her new single, "Hypochondriac." After spending time touring with North American alt favorites like Lucy Dacus and Andy Shauf, Lily is equipped to pave her own path this side of the pond with her delicate songs.
"Hypochondriac" marks Lily's first release on Dead Oceans, the indie label that boasts a roster of similarly evocative musicians like Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, and Japanese Breakfast. The song spotlights her gentle vocals atop layered, swirling guitars that give the song an ethereal aura, backed by a driving drum pattern that tethers it to earth.
Here, the term "hypochondriac" isn't intended to be taken literally; the "illness" Lily sings of seems to be her own anxieties, which she says tend to lead to somewhat-self-induced paranoia. "The song's theme [is] pressure to feel enough but not too much in a time of hyper connectivity, plus a personal reminder to be accountable for and have agency over the part of me that gravitates towards meltdown," Lily explains in a statement. Throughout the song, she tells herself to "look alive, look alive"—mimicking the snap back to reality after your intrusive thoughts take hold. "We're all sick of waiting for a moment to stop and sleep it off," goes the chorus. "Now I'm sick and waiting for a moment to stop and not feel so much."
As Lily tells it, people can be both the cause and solution to their own anxieties. "Hypochondriac" comes to terms with becoming more of the latter.