Later this month, the LA-based retro-pop auteur Debbii Dawson will release her new EP Where Have All The Good Men Gone? We've posted the title track, and it's fucking awesome. Lots of people have been messing around with bouncy '80s synth sounds in the past few years, but Dawson does it with a level of craft, vision, and personality that reminds me of Chappell Roan. You can hear a bit more of that in "Kool Aid," the new single that she released today.
Dawson co-wrote "Kool Aid" with pop-industry professionals Justin Tranter and Tommy English, and she and English produced it together. It's a shimmery, irresistible jam that links infatuation with cult-style devotion: "I'd do anything that you say/ I would drink your Kool-Aid." In a press release, Dawson says that the song was informed by the time she spent in an actual cult:
I used to be in a cult. It sounds like a unique ordeal, but this brief time in my life taught me that the experience of being influenced and controlled to your detriment is more common than you think. You might be in a similar situation yourself right now, but blissfully unaware. My song "Kool Aid" is about that feeling. "What do you think about control?" — a cult leader chillingly asked me these exact words, and it’s a question I wanted to ask listeners in this song as well. We all want to believe in something or someone, to belong and experience meaningful connection. When all of these great things are promised to you, it’s very easy to get sucked into something dangerous. We live in a time where our hope is being weaponized. My hope is that this song gets listeners asking themselves questions about what and who they believe in before it’s too late.
Check out the Aaron Sinclair-directed video below.
The Where Have All The Good Men Gone? EP is out 6/26 on RCA.
