Album Review: girlpuppy - 'When I'm Alone'
‘When I’m Alone’ embodies the sense of striving for self-betterment throughout the album, while being truly open about difficult thoughts and moments in their lives that people will frequently find themselves experiencing as they grow older.
October 28th sees girlpuppy (Becca Harvey) releasing her latest album ‘When I’m Alone.’ Throughout her career so far, Becca Harvey has applied her vocal versatility to any genre she sees fit for girlpuppy to use in her tracks, along with a stunning display of various complicated emotions being presented in the songs – all of which lend themselves to creating unique listening experiences every single time.
On the topic of writing songs that are hard-hitting, Harvey explained that “it’s hard to relive something that’s happened to you and write it in a way that sounds beautiful and clever.” She added that “you want to write about it in a way that no one’s heard of before”.
On the 19th of July, Becca Harvey released details of girlpuppy’s debut album ‘When I’m Alone’ along with the album’s first single ‘Wish.’ The track ‘Wish’ captures the uncertainty we find ourselves experiencing when friends unexpectedly exit our lives, and often we find ourselves with no answers as to why they left. ‘Wish’ is dripping with the pain of losing those friends, and how in the aftermath of them leaving we often see things we know would make that friend laugh but we can no longer share that moment with them.
The fifth song of the album is titled ‘Somewhere’ and it gives the listeners a track they could potentially feel so seen by. ‘Somewhere’ takes the feelings of feeling lost and could easily be an anthem for the times in your life where you feel like you’re lacking direction.
The album’s title track ‘When I’m Alone’ focuses more on our personal struggles, and what makes us the people we are without finding a way to pass the blame to other people when things go wrong in our lives. Harvey explained that “with ‘When I’m Alone,’ the theme really is my internal battle with things I’ve done, rather than reflecting and blaming everyone else.”
‘Permanent State’ brings girlpuppy’s debut album to a close, and while the track features the line “I hate writing songs,’ it couldn’t be further from the truth. Harvey said that “I love how cinematic this song feels; the keys sound so beautiful. It’s a coming-of-age, movie-type song,” and she isn’t wrong, ‘When I’m Alone’ wouldn’t feel out of place on a soundtrack for the latest coming-of-age movie, or perhaps even a tv series. Reflecting on writing ‘Permanent State,’ she proudly declared that “it’s my favourite song I’ve ever made.”
girlpuppy’s ‘When I’m Alone’ proves that it’s okay to admit to yourself that sometimes you might be the problem and reinforces how we can always work on ourselves as human beings – while reminding us that our flaws make us human, they don’t make us weak.
Words by Bethany Ellis
