On Friday, Florida emo travelers Pool Kids, a 2022-vintage Stereogum Band To Watch, will release Easier Said Than Done, their first album for new label Epitaph Records. I have heard it, and it rocks. We have posted the title track and "Leona Street," and now Pool Kids follow those songs with a new one called "Sorry Not Sorry." It's not a Demi Lovato cover. Bandleader Christine Goodwyne sings about how you never call when you're sober, but it's not an Evanescence cover, either. Instead, it's a hushed, synth-assisted track made with a serious sense of lived-in weariness.
Talking about "Sorry Not Sorry," Christine Goodwyne says:
When you feel like you’re somebody’s second choice, or like you’re not as important to them as they are to you, it can send you into this desperate, embarrassing sort of spiral. In phases like those, it can feel very empowering to pick yourself up, take control of the situation and be like "whatever, I’m not going to tolerate this, I don’t need this person’s approval." I used to get caught sort of in the middle of those two approaches, swinging back and forth between totally desperate and totally in-control.
It’s been many years since I’ve dealt with or felt anything like that, but it’s the kind of feeling that you never forget. Sometimes when I’m writing, it can be inspiring to tap into those old, more potent emotions that I haven’t felt in a long time. It’s kind of an ode to an old version of myself that would’ve found a song like this very cathartic.
Listen below.
Easier Said Than Done is out 8/15 on Epitaph.
