Rejoice! The tall child EP is finally here! It kicks off with the single that first brought them to our attention. Stupid Body came from the internal struggle of living with and attempting to manage a disability, whilst being met with a seemingly unending lack of comprehension externally. The resulting track is a sad, but at the same time strangely uplifting, almost cathartic expression of helplessness and exasperation. Channelling the musical styles of Mitski, Arlo Parks and Rachel Chinouriri, Stupid Body is the sonic crystallisation of anger, frustration and despondency. After speaking to the band’s songwriter Zha recently (in our Start Track interview, which you can find here), we now know that they have come to terms with their disability and accept it as part of their life, living their best life regardless. So it’s a happy ending.
This leads us onto Orange, which is our personal favourite from the EP. A haunting folky intro gives way to a pared-back arrangement that really brings Zha’s delicate, breathy vocals into focus. Musically, it sounds like only an acoustic guitar, fiddle, and cello are at play here, at least for the majority of the song. There are occasional pepperings of piano notes, too, that add sporadic highlights. Right at the end of the track – and in stark contrast to the rest of it – and just for a few moments, Zha’s vocal becomes an impressively massive reverby wall of sound – hats off to the producers George Davies & Alex Elder.
This is followed by another prior single, All Or Nothing, which is a soft, subtle, sincere, heart-on-sleeve ballad that sounds like desperation feels. They manage to conjure emotions, thoughts and feelings that are difficult to identify and/or unravel, but you know that they’re real and you know that they’re complicated. “Tell the truth or tell a lie/coz I’m an all or nothing guy” belts Zha towards the end of the track, and as the shackles come off and their vocal soars into the stratosphere, their role as star of the show is solidified.
Fourth track Oh Well, That’s Life was the last single released before the full EP came out. It’s the most jaunty and jovial of the 5 songs included here. The chorus is a straight-up anthem, with fun, simple, sing-along lyrics, sung loud over a bed of huge tremolo-smothered guitars. Gritty guitars are interspersed throughout the song, which adds a nice bit of tonal variety and punctuation. We imagine this banger sounds especially good live. We’ll soon find out. More on that shortly…
The last tune is the title track. Somehow You Grow is a 5-minute epic. Instrumentally, there are alt-country vibes here – the echoey guitars combined with the pedal steel sound remind us of the excellent Daniel Lanois-produced Emmylou Harris album, Wrecking Ball.
About three quarters of the way through, the track breaks down to a tender solo acoustic guitar before being joined gradually by the other instrumentation and once everything is back in the song spins and swirls, taking us towards the end of the EP with Zha’s vocals again growing exponentially, before being manipulated and eventually falling away to leave the same solo acoustic to finish.
To celebrate the release of Somehow You Grow, tall child are putting on an EP launch show at The Sebright Arms on Wednesday, July 30th. Tickets are FREE and available on Dice here. We’ll see you there!
Written by Kinda Grizzly
