Art School Girlfriend keeps running, we keep following
Art School Girlfriend has always thrived in that sweet spot where introspection meets propulsion. And her latest release Doing Laps finds Polly Mackey circling her own thoughts with purpose, not panic. Built on a restless motorik pulse, the track feels like movement as coping mechanism: forward motion as self-preservation. Synths shimmer but never quite settle, drums tick away like an anxious internal clock, and Mackey’s voice floats above it all — distant, intimate, quietly commanding. It’s music for walking fast at night with headphones on, convincing yourself you’re fine.
Where Doing Laps is all nervous momentum, The Peaks pulls back and breathes. There’s a widescreen melancholy at play here — guitars stretched thin, textures gently fraying at the edges. It’s less about escape, more about perspective: that rare moment where clarity arrives after the emotional climb. Mackey leans into restraint, letting space do as much emotional heavy lifting as melody. The result is quietly devastating, the kind of track that sneaks up on you halfway through and refuses to leave.
Tucked neatly alongside these moments of motion and stillness is L.Y.A.T.T., a sharp little emotional dagger disguised as an earworm. Playful on the surface, bruised underneath, it’s Art School Girlfriend doing what she does best: turning vulnerability into something deceptively catchy. It hums with self-awareness, a wink through the pain, and lands as a reminder that pop doesn’t need to shout to hit hard.
Together, these tracks sketch a portrait of an artist in control of her pace — sometimes sprinting, sometimes stopping to take it all in — but always moving forward. No wasted steps. No false turns. Just beautifully measured laps.
Lean In out March, 11th via A Fiction Records Recs.
Lyrics_ The Peaks
Keep me up and alive
Hold the end off for me
Won’t slip
I’m free
Looking at the world
That made me
You first come alive
Then won’t sleep
I won’t leave
I won’t leave
Frame the mountains you like
I wanna give you the peaks
Don’t slip
Hold me
I’ve figured it out
Purely
I see it for us
You’re so real
It’s up through the mountains
It runs deep
I’ll take it up with the gods
If any
I won’t leave
I won’t leave
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