Words by Sibyl Cooper
Photos by Photo by Tonje Thilesen
Princess of the indie dream-scape, girlpuppy has dropped her first single and music video of 2025, Windows – released under Captured Tracks. A tender reflection on a break-up, girlpuppy explores thoughts, feelings, and memories of a lost relationship, seeing reflections of their former partner in the everyday.
Going through a breakup is tumultuous. The cold rush of air, the spike of adrenaline we feel when letting go and free-falling into the unknown is frightening. girlpuppy spreads a blanket of feathers to catch us.
Lyrically, girlpuppy is honest and raw. On a cold winter’s day, she invites us to sit by the fire with her and the band, serenading us, showing her internal world and thought processes, “everywhere I go I convince myself you are there”. There is an optimism laced in her grief, expecting an old romance to be in the places she goes, a candle in the dark.
She’s right in a way, is a person with you if memories of them are projected onto present-day surfaces?
A warm glow on a dark night. This encapsulates the instrumentals of Windows. In traditional girlpuppy style, soft electric, acoustic and bass guitars lull us into a trace. Adorned with spritely piano runs, the instrumentals take on a vintage texture reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac and The Carpenters. Fleetwood Mac’s Silver Springs was a key reference for girlpuppy when writing this track. She embodies the tenderness and vulnerability of Nicks, McVee and Buckingham’s lyricism and instrumentals.
Single art by Tonje Thilesen
Opening with the words “today I drove past your old house and sat outside for a while… I can see us through the windows” girlpuppy creates a sense of liminality, the past and present blending together.
This is reflected in the music video directed by Trent Wayne. She prances through the rooms of a house, hit with golden rays from a setting sun. She muses through a forest at early dusk later in the video, exploring ideas of rebirth and reconnection with the material world. The forest is a place of freedom from the burdens of the human experience.
With girlpuppy’s white dress twirling, her gaze reaching deep into the camera lens, the vintage carpets and velvet drapings on set all harken back to Fleetwood Mac’s Gypsy music video. Stevie Nicks and girlpuppy dance in a room with some lace and paper flowers. Both artists want to take us back to the Velvet Underground, to the floors they love.
girlpuppy has taken this true-life experience and sculpted a new narrative through the window panes. She will see memories of her dreamy video, and of her art, instead of reminders of a broken relationship.
There is a greater sense of certainty and consolidation within Windows, and her December 2024 release, Champ. We can see a clear personal and artistic development from her debut album When I’m Alone in 2022. The instrumentals take a more melancholic tone in Windows, with dark, gritter and distorted guitars driving Champ.
After this near three year gap between releases, Windows and Champ usher in a new era for girlpuppy. Her soothing spin on indie-dream-pop is sure to entrance a new age of listeners from across the globe.
The ASBO team eagerly awaits more music from girlpuppy throughout 2025.
