Although it’s been two years since her last release, hemlocke springs shows the time touring with Ashnikko in 2023 and Doja Cat in 2024 didn’t falter her songwriting in the slightest on “the beginning of the end.” The single also marks the first new release for the North Carolina-raised since 2023’s going…going…GONE!, a formal introduction of an album that also spawned her biggest track, “girlfriend.”
While that song explored head-over-heels infatuation through bouncy alt-pop melodies fitting for the genre-bending tendencies of singer-songwriters today, “the beginning of the end” is more introspective in its messaging, having been written seven years ago when hemlocke springs was in college.
“I was meeting people of different sexualities for the first time and questioning the Christian rhetoric that being gay is an abhorrence,” she said. “This song is me trying to sort all my thoughts and feelings of once being restricted like, ‘Can’t I have some normalcy?’”
From the get-go, the blaring electronic instrumentation matches hemlocke springs’ calls to the void as she ponders her preconceived notions and many “Maybe…” questions. About as fast as the opening got things started, she shows she’s not afraid of switching things up with a more bubbly and slower-paced speed.
However, the anthemic energy returns, with her existential questions growing more personal while her vocals match the ascending and descending intensity. By the last leg of the song, the pulsating bass momentarily switches to pop-punk before settling back to the bubbly pace heard earlier.
In the hands of a different artist, that amount of switching styles would give listeners whiplash. But hemlocke springs makes it work in her favor, showing how each genre represents different headspaces.
See hemlocke springs open for Conan Gray in San Diego at Viejas Arena on Oct. 4.
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Listen to “the beginning of the end” the new single from hemlocke springs.
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