words Niamh Madden
Julie Dawson, NewDad’s lead singer and songwriter, has debuted an album dominated by shoegaze, ethereal and electronica influences, enhanced by her breathy, sweet and echoing voice. A sound reminiscent of the likes of The Cranberries, Mazzy Star, My Bloody Valentine, and The Cure, The Bottom of the Pool is an album that takes one on an emotionally fluctuating journey, mirroring the difficulties of navigating a true sense of self, purpose and identity, especially prevalent in your twenties.
This album uses music to bring the lyrics to life. We hear the overwhelm and struggle written with the rising crescendo of Dawson’s harmonised vocals and hallucinogenic soundtrack. Opening with the titular track ‘Bottom of the Pool’, a quiet beat introduces infused soft, melancholy vocals. From the outset, and as it continues, each track is something anyone can relate to; the confused navigation of attempting to understand relationships, processing past lives, and affirming your place in the here and now. The decisions surrounding song placement mimic emotional highs and lows, crushing the hope and confirmation felt by the listener, only to raise it again as the album unfolds.
A running theme throughout The Bottom of the Pool is the profound inability to be ‘somewhere in the middle’, even knowing that it’s where you want to be. The frustration at not being able to figure out how to get there highlighted in the first track is what builds onto the dark and spooky ‘Close The Door’. The hypnotic backings coupled with juxtaposing lyrics of ‘warm cold light’ and despair conveyed by ‘It’s my body, my mind, /I want to leave it all behind’, depicts the wrestling between two extremes, failing to be in the middle, like ‘Bottom of the Pool’ describes. The first and second tracks completely oppose one another, with the transition into ‘I Get Lost In This House’ carrying the listener through a state of bittersweet reminiscence ‘Underneath the amount of memories /of deep sleeps of climbing trees’ and promoting the idea that focusing on previous versions of you that no longer exist prevents growth and development. The repeated refrain of ‘I get lost in this house’ alongside the rise of the backing music is goosebump-inducing. One feels submerged in the fuzziness of the instrumentals, creating the illusion of faded memories.
It is ‘Ripples’ that struck me most. Listening to this song made the unstable view of self (‘Who is that standing at the dresser? /I’m not sure, /but I know that I detest her’) feel common, making myself, and undoubtedly others, feel not only understood but comforted at the mainstream experience of these tumultuous emotional periods. The futility of efforts from the previous songs seems to come to a head with ‘Ripples’, as ‘all the ghosts /scream reminders of the days where I was better’, and ‘All the wounds that I let fester /getting deeper, getting wetter’, conveying that rather than healing, the situation is worsening. Bringing these lyrics to life, the listener hears the subtle vocals of Dawson echoing, almost acting as the ghosts and spirits we hear about. It is in this part of The Bottom of the Pool that listeners are plunged into times of failure, uncertainty, and frustration, undergoing the emotion that Julie Dawson has penned. Her immense ability to connect with her listeners on such a deep level of understanding is what sets her apart from other artists. Few can do this in the way that she can.
Being emotionally thrown again with ‘Silly Little Song’, the pulsing synths generate the excitement of bringing someone new into the lyrical voice’s life. Accompanied by deep organ-like music, elements of casting one another into the tide, burying each other in graveyards, praying and churches, to me, allude and scream Irish mythology. When seeing ‘NewDad’ in December of last year, I had remarked to the band’s lead guitarist, Seán O’Dowd, how well they intertwine Irish culture into their songs, and he had said how much of an important component this was for NewDad’s music. In Dawson’s debut album, she extracts and manipulates parts of Irish mythology and culture and expresses them so clearly in her voice and lyrics, adding an edge and enhancing her album more.
The tracks titled ‘Hailee’ and ‘ATF’ signal the upward motion towards positivity and clarity. ‘Hailee’ is a little harder to navigate, something I think reinforces the lyrical voice’s frustration at not being able to decipher her. There is an air of acceptance that we haven’t heard previously in the other tracks, with turning a blind eye and choosing not to focus on what is not known to prevent suffering acting as the main motifs for this song. ‘ATF’ is the result of an individual acting in a different way to ‘Hailee’. Comforting like the motion of being wrapped up in a blanket as the lyrics describe, Dawson’s voice, the thumping beats and psychedelic sounds completely wash over the listener. Ending with contentment, ‘Finale’ feels extraterrestrial with the monotone and repeating speaking voice of Dawson. The song observes a slow rise of background vocals, drums, symbols, and synths, only for them to cease, leaving her smooth vocals to take centre stage. ‘Finale’ finishes the album in such a brilliant and apt way, leaving the listener feeling fuzzy and renewed from the dynamic journey they have just taken.
