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Photo by Reese Layton

Nobody actually walks down the aisle to "Für Elise." That's kind of the whole point.

Have you ever thought about the soundtrack to some of the best moments of your life? Think about your core memories, meeting your best friend, falling in love, or even things in the future that haven’t happened yet, your wedding or maybe moving out of your parents house for the first time. Do any of these moments have a song that comes to mind? You probably won’t walk down the aisle to “Fur Elise,” but that’s okay because it’s the wrong song for the moment on purpose. 

Named after the piece of beginner piano music that anyone who’s ever taken piano lessons sort of half-remembers, Blondshell uses this mismatch for a track about picking the wrong song for the biggest moment of your life. Everyone knows what it’s like to not know what to do when growing up, and on the closing track to her forthcoming record Violins that’s due out September 25th via Partisan Records, she explores the intricacies of what it's like to grow up without a script. 

The crunchy, rhythmic guitars and loud-quiet swings that have been a staple of her sound since her debut are present through this track bringing you that signature Blondshell confidence giving her the space to do what she does best. This time, she’s done an incredible job of pushing it more widescreen, incorporating a warm low end build into these dense, melodic arrangements that keep unfolding rather than resolving. It gives the song the feeling of the final scene in your favorite coming of age movie. 

Blondshell’s said the song came out of trying to figure out what you want your life to look like, without any real starting point. In a world for young people today where jobs are hard to come by, things are more expensive than ever, and dating isn’t always easy, a song about not knowing what to do is something even beyond appropriate. It speaks to the strange, ongoing work of deciding what you actually want, set against the backdrop of a piece of music everybody knows but nobody would choose. 

Produced by Yves Rothman, Violins pulls from everything including Leonard Cohen and Pavement alongside newer touchstones like Four and Sade, and “Fur Elise” follows her earlier two singles “Heart Has To Work So Hard” and the title track “Violins.” Blondshell will take the album on the road in December with UK tour dates and a North American run in February and March. 

Listen to "Fur Elise" below: