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Lina Tullgren has released the first cut from their forthcoming sophomore effort Free Cell, a woozy, grievous track titled “Golden Babyland.”
Tullgren makes it hurt on “Golden Babyland.” Wobbling over a dull-toned, grumbling bass and warped guitars, they straddle the line between claustrophobic loneliness and anxiety: “In the kitchen melting Legos / I am sick, I am alone.” The song unspools and comes undone as it leads into its coda, where guitars squeal, fidget and go haywire, and Tullgren’s vocals fade to black: “All I want is for someone / To call me the golden babe.”
The visual follows a grieving father as he kidnaps an unsuspecting little boy and tries to recreate a world in which his deceased daughter is still alive. The father rarely looks at the child, intending to maintain suspended disbelief that the child is his own. The video ends on both the man and the child staring at a television screen and crying as police lights fill the room.
Viewing Tullgren’s song as an embodiment of grief, loneliness and wanting to run backwards into a moment that is gone forever, director Haley Dahl wanted to pair the song with a jarring narrative that was cut from the same cloth.
“This example is of course disturbing and extreme—but I do believe that it speaks to a type of ugly alone-ness that everyone feels, and that always threatens to fester and become a horrible being of its own,” Dahl said in a statement.
Free Cell is set for release on Aug. 23 via Captured Tracks. Written in striking states of loneliness as they were living in their parents’ house in New England, Tullgren plunged their work into darker, meditative territory and explored a wider musical palette.
As described by Tullgren, Free Cell is named after a game of solitaire: “Unlike normal solitaire, Free Cell can always be won,” they said in a statement. The album was constructed in the same vein: every game of solitaire is played alone, but at the end, there’s always a moment when everything snaps into place.
Tullgren and their band will support Frankie Cosmos on a North American tour in September. You can find the upcoming tour dates beneath the album details.
Check out Tullgren’s new single and the details of Free Cell below.
Free Cell Artwork:
Free Cell Tracklist:
01. Free Cell
02. 110717
03. Golden Babyland
04. Bad At Parties
05. Saiddone
06. Soft Glove 1
07. Glowing x 10000
08. Wow, Lucky
09. Soft Again
10. Nervous Yet
11. Soft Glove 2
12. Piano
Lina Tullgren Tour Dates:
18 – Boston, Mass. @ Royale*
19 – Burlington, Vt. @ ArtsRiot*
20 – Montreal, Quebec @ L’Astral*
21 – Toronto, Ontario @ Horseshoe Tavern*
22 – Detroit, Mich. @ Deluxx Fluxx*
23 – Chicago, Ill. @ Thalia Hall*
25 – Columbus, Ohio @ Ace of Cups*
26 – Pittsburgh, Pa. @ Spirit Hall*
27 – Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat*
28 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ PhilaMOCA*
29 – New York, N.Y. @ Webster Hall*
(* = supporting Frankie Cosmos)