Passing Time - Laura Watling
Thank you, Julianna!
I am currently stuck in a COVID house. That is, one of my family members unfortunately currently has COVID. I don’t think any of us miss not being able to go outdoors and scrounging to come up with activities to fill the day’s now-everlasting hours. One thing that this time indoors has afforded me (besides filling out a number of job applications) is the free time to explore the music world’s expansive underbelly.
The track that I am writing about today comes to me courtesy of this blog’s co-author, one Julianna. Julianna texted me a song by a quaint, twee singer-songwriter by the name of Laura Watling. I had never heard of Watling, though Julianna’s glowing review of the track “The One For You” - namely that it sounded like a great lost Yo La Tengo track - was enough to convince me to spare 3 minutes of bed-rotting and doomscrolling.
It, in fact, was a pleasant tune, and though I wasn’t floored, I was inspired to look deeper into Watling’s catalogue. A bit of reading on the singer revealed that she has quite an extensive background in indie pop circles, acting as a member of groups like Casino Ashtrays, the Autocollants, and Tears Run Rings, the latter two of which also include her frequent collaborator and husband Ed Mazzucco. These groups aren’t household names, though they should be quite familiar to those immersed in the indie underground of California’s in the 90s. Putting out 7-inches and appearing on comps through independent labels like Popgun, Shelflife, and Drive-In, Watling has an expansive and storied history of writing and recording great pop material.
One release that specifically grabbed my eye was the What’s Your Favorite Color? EP, a Watling solo affair on the aforementioned Shelflife label. When exploring a new artist, I like to first take in a shorter, more digestible release before jumping into sprawling full-length projects, just a personal preference. At just 4 tracks for a mere 8-minute runtime, it looked as if I had found my winner.
And winner I had found.
The entire EP is wonderful, portraying Watling as a dynamic melodic seamstress, combining grounded songwriting with interesting choices of timbre, including layered vocal lines and arpeggiated, intertwining guitars. All this being done on just a home multitrack cassette recorder, no less!
“Passing Time” is probably my favorite track from the EP. Employing the surprisingly uncommon tactic of starting with your chorus, I adore the section’s call-and-response structure. Watling’s subdued and pillowy vocal style is on full display throughout the entire track (and EP for that matter), but really makes itself known front and center here. The instrumentation is far from extravagant, as one might expect from an independent home recording. There is a charm in the guitar’s treble and the ramshackle drum set-up that is hard to fake and even harder to pull off.
Passing away the time
Passing away the time
2 other sections follow from this introductory verse, including a restless verse and, probably my favorite part, a haunting two-chord exploration I feel comfortable handing the pre-chorus label. This part especially entrances me, as the Cocteau Twins-y vocal delivery and melodic profile in combination with the humble, Elephant 6-adjacent low-fidelity production just scratches an itch for me, as it surely does for many others. A fairly simple pop song, of which there are many that do not grab my attention, I can’t exactly put my finger on what is so compelling about this song. This is breaking pop songwriting down to its barest structure, taking only what is imperative to the song’s expression, and allowing true talent and a keen ear for melody take the wheel.
The entire presentation exudes the aura of someone who is following a passion at the expense of nothing and without regard for anyone else. “Passing Time,” and the entire What’s Your Favorite Color? EP, feel like a pure passion project, a collection of demos that feels almost intrusive to engage with. What lies within, however, is truly special and deserving of far more attention than it ever got in its own era.