New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Pom Pom Squad announces 'Mirror Starts Moving Without Me', their eclectic, fully-loaded new album which will drop October 25th via City Slang Records.
Pom Pom Squad's album 'Death of a Cheerleader' may have been heralded as one of 2021's standout indie rock debut records, but with 'Mirror Starts Moving Without Me', the band is vehemently disavowing the expectations laid upon them, delivering a body of work that self-examines one's own limits of identity… before taking a massive sledgehammer to any walls boxing them in.
Pom Pom Squad bolsters today's album announcement with the release of "Spinning", a thrashing manifestation of growth through trauma, complete with crunching guitars and a chorus meant to be shouted out from the top of your lungs.
"The song represents a moment when I was learning to cope with painful memories of the past and how they've shaped my future," said Pom Pom Squad frontperson Mia Berrin. "In accepting them, I've been able to find more freedom and forgiveness within myself."
Pom Pom Squad has also shared the music video for "Spinning", directed by Mia Berrin and Benjamin Lieber. Speaking about the "Spinning" video, Barren noted: "A lot of the lyrics on the album have to do with watching/analyzing yourself, so I knew I wanted to create a surveillance room setup for something. It turned out to be a really fun home-base for the "Spinning" video."
Pom Pom Squad previously teased 'Mirror Starts Moving Without Me' with the release of "Downhill", a cheeky yet cutthroat look at the dualities of life's obstacles and changes. "I was thinking a lot about the push-pull between those opposing sides of my personality, said Mia Berrin. "Sometimes being ambitious feels like being self-destructive and I wanted to explore the line between the two."
"Downhill" was immediately met with critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone calling the track "a grunge-y summer stunner", Paper saying it's "a strong return from the band, rife with all the angst, wit and grit," and the NY Times saying it "balances between regrets and the perverse pleasures of self-destruction."
Elsewhere on the album finds Pom Pom Squad embracing their seductive campiness on "Street Fighter", unleashing a ferocious bite on "Villain", experimenting with where angst and pop collide on "Messages", and exposing Berrin's most vulnerable personal reflections on the lullaby-esque "Montauk". But while the tracks of 'Mirror Starts Moving Without Me' unfurl like unique chapters in a book, they are all beautifully corseted together by Berrin's songwriting which meets new artistic highs as she unravels her own meaning amidst sudden fame, euphoric peaks, and self-destructive spirals.
Berrin elaborates on the significance of the album's title: "the album title is inspired by a horror movie trope and relates to the uncanny feeling of seeing yourself reflected — both literally and figuratively. It was my most challenging creative experience to date and a true labor of love."
On her creative inspirations for the album, Berrin says: "I took a lot of inspiration from my younger self on this album. I wanted to get back in touch with my creative roots. After hitting a particularly rough bout of writer's block, I challenged myself to make a playlist of my all-time favorite songs from childhood to adulthood. It was healing in a way I didn't expect! Before we went into the studio I made my bandmates and Cody do the same, then we all listened to each other's and had a long conversation about them. Through the sessions for Mirror we were all pulling references from our collective playlists more than anything else."
Track Listing for 'Mirror Starts Moving Without Me':
"Downhill"
"Spinning"
"Street Fighter"
"Everybody's Moving On"
"Villain"
"Running From Myself"
"Messages"
"Montauk"
"Doll Song"
"Tarot Interlude"
"The Tower"
