Alongside the album announcement, Anna has debuted the title track ‘Back to Pennsylvania’ today. Written shortly after her move from Brooklyn back into her parents’ home, the song became an emotional catalyst for the rest of the record. What began as a break-up song transformed into something completely different. ‘Back to Pennsylvania’ is a snapshot of the moment Anna began to see a setback as something more promising; a chance to see her flowers truly grow again. “’Back to Pennsylvania’ is a song about growing through pain,” says Anna. “It’s about returning to your roots and reconnecting with yourself when shit hits the fan.” The track marks her third and latest preview of the forthcoming LP, joining the previously released tracks ‘Girl Song’ and ‘Counting’.

Back To Pennsylvania:

1. Counting
2. Back to Pennsylvania
3. Landmine
4. Already Low
5. Clover
6. Pissin’
7. Dying On Your Hill (ft. Deloyd Elze)
8. Girl Song
9. Dead Giveaway
10. Love Me Back

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Now, the duo are officially launching the project and sharing their first single ‘Fully Slow.’ With Sean Sroka (Ten Kills the Pack) on board as a producer, engineering by Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck, Bully, Alvvays) and tracks mixed by Alex Farrar (MJ Lenderman, Soccer Mommy, Angel Olsen).

The track comes from the duo’s self-titled debut, which is also being announced. The album will be released on October 16 on a new label founded by Georgas called Beetle Bomb Records.

‘Fully Slow’ explores the quiet ache of wanting someone who will never want you back—while still building entire fantasies around the possibility, as Heinemann explains: “’Fully Slow’ is about wanting someone who you know deep down will never want you back, but still fantasizing that they do. I’ve always been very prone to pointless intense crushes that remain completely internalized. I can construct a full storyline about what might happen and never do a single thing about it.”

So Faint:

1. Assistant Theme
2. Fully Slow
3. Begin Again
4. Chain Chain Chain
5. Devotion Is A Mess
6. Dreamlike
7. Economist
8. Favourite
9. Temporary Mirror
10. Say The End

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Houdei’s ethereal, mesmerising vocal takes centre stage within an earthy blend of cinematic folk, with Haley Heynderickx contributing banjo, harmonies and handclaps alongside flourishes of cello and flute. Shades of Weyes Blood, Vashti Bunyan and Judee Sill emerge, but there’s something subtly unsettling beneath its pastoral beauty. Strings occasionally take on an eerie, horror-score-like vibrato, allowing darkness to creep into an otherwise organic soundscape.

That darkness takes physical form in the accompanying video. Candlelit rooms and striking shafts of light initially create something resembling gothic folk horror before Houdei transforms into a possessed, Exorcist-like version of herself. A newer incarnation then appears to fight off this demonic former self through wonderfully jerky choreography, bringing the song’s theme of breaking free from the person you’ve become within a damaging relationship vividly to life. Created entirely with practical effects, it’s creepy, beautiful and far more meaningful than its horror imagery initially suggests.

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Grungy guitars immediately take hold, driving a song that feels simultaneously explosive and strangely weighed down. The choruses erupt into distortion and cathartic harmonies, with Caitlin’s voice working beautifully alongside Rae and Jake’s, yet there’s still a dragging quality underneath – like trying to run in a dream and finding yourself wading through treacle. That uneasy push and pull makes the repetition of “we’ve been here before” feel particularly potent.

Shot in stark black and white, the accompanying video centres around a chaotic house party and mosh pit, yet there’s something curiously disconnected about the people within it. Knowing the circumstances surrounding the song changes the way those images land; beneath the noise and movement is an inescapable darkness. ‘March 16th’ hits hard, but it’s that lingering sense of unease that proves hardest to shake.

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And ‘City of thirst’ is highly cinematic. Synths, horns and even flashes of flute create a dramatic, constantly evolving backdrop for RIVER’s breathy, seductive vocal, with the arrangement eventually soaring towards almost heavenly heights. There’s a haunting quality running beneath its beauty too, perfectly capturing that tension between recognising the danger and surrendering to it anyway.

The accompanying video takes the cinematic ambition even further, drawing heavily from Natural Born Killers. RIVER and her male counterpart recreate Mickey and Mallory’s unofficial bridge wedding before cruising the highway in a classic open-top car, surrounded by surreal, dreamlike and hyper-stylised imagery. The references are unmistakable but perfectly suited to a song about all-consuming attraction. ‘City of thirst’ doesn’t just explore toxic love – it makes the whole terrible idea look dangerously appealing.

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Birdsong welcomes you in before rolling drums and a flourish of keys establish a sound that is gorgeous from the very first moments. There’s an unmistakable Beach Boys influence to ‘Summertime Ain’t Easy’, particularly in the melancholic side of their sun-drenched pop, but Aimée never allows nostalgia to completely swallow the present. Her classic retro-pop vocal carries its own trace of sadness, while subtle shadows within the instrumentation prevent the song’s sunshine from ever becoming completely carefree. When the chorus opens up, that contrast becomes particularly effective: uplifting enough to sway along to, but with a lingering ache underneath that refuses to disappear.

Aimée describes the track as being about “the fear of missing out and feeling like you’re watching everybody around you be so happy”, calling it “a heaviness you can dance to.” It’s an image the song captures beautifully. ‘Summertime Ain’t Easy’ feels like walking alone along a beach on a perfectly sunny afternoon, the sounds of a distant fairground and everyone else’s summer fun drifting through the air behind you. Add the faded flicker of Super 8 film and you have the perfect visual companion: warm, nostalgic and beautiful, but just a little lonely around the edges.

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A huge, grungy guitar riff hooks you in immediately, while GK’s commanding vocal ensures she remains every bit its equal. Doomy drums stalk through the verses as ‘Mother Knows’ moves effortlessly between the swagger of classic 70s rock, the shadows of 80s goth and the grit of 90s grunge. But its most spine-tingling moment arrives during the bridge, when guitarist Eliza Lee swaps the conventional approach for a violin bow. “I’ve always loved the haunting effect you can get with a violin bow that I don’t really think you can replicate with gadgetry,” she explains. “It felt like the right move for the graveyard ambience of the song.” She’s absolutely right; the resulting sound is genuinely eerie, sending a shiver down the spine and pushing the track even further into its macabre world.

The accompanying visualiser keeps things comparatively simple, capturing VENUS GRRRLS performing together while their goth-rock aesthetic and formidable presence do the rest. Yet ‘Mother Knows’ practically begs for an entire cinematic world to be built around it – preferably after dark, amongst crumbling headstones in an appropriately mist-covered graveyard. For a band already adept at drawing upon gothic literature, film and imagery without allowing those influences to become empty aesthetics, ‘Mother Knows’ feels completely at home. VENUS GRRRLS don’t simply borrow from gothic rock; they seem to instinctively understand what makes it so intoxicating in the first place.

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Sitting somewhere between electronic pop, hyper-pop and experimental art-pop, ‘As Per My Last Email’ begins relatively slowly before steadily accelerating as the pressure mounts. NOIA’s vocal undergoes its own transformation alongside it; initially sounding drained and exhausted, her distinctive Catalan-accented delivery becomes increasingly frantic while robotic processing adds another layer of detachment. Electronics begin to glitch and collide, rhythms grow more restless and what started relatively controlled gradually descends into wonderfully frazzled chaos. It’s an incredibly effective piece of sonic storytelling, capturing the sensation of an overworked brain with far too many tabs open until the whole system finally begins to malfunction.

NOIA describes the track as “the slow collapse of hyperfunctionality”, where a person becomes “a broken, over-wired robot still sending polite replies”, and its magnificent accompanying video takes that absurdity even further. Office furniture is transplanted into forests and onto beaches as NOIA continues attempting to work, creating a world that is simultaneously dystopian, surreal and brimming with dark humour. Watching the boundaries between work, life, nature and machinery completely disintegrate feels ridiculous – until you realise just how little exaggeration is actually involved. ‘As Per My Last Email’ is weird, witty and increasingly unhinged, turning the horrors of being permanently “on” into one gloriously glitchy nervous breakdown.

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This time, it is Juli’s voice that firmly takes centre stage. Ethereal yet still carrying that distinctive vintage character, her vocal floats and occasionally pleads above a beautifully spacious arrangement, while percussion resembling the gallop of horses’ hooves adds an immediately evocative detail. A brief instrumental break allows the swelling strings their own moment in the spotlight, further heightening the track’s cinematic scale without overwhelming its emotional intimacy. Where ‘Desert Hills Motel’ conjured saloon bars, abandoned highways and faded postcards, ‘Honky Tonk Angels’ feels as though it has ventured further out onto the open road – still unmistakably part of the same world, but looking towards a wider horizon.

The imagery becomes even more poignant knowing who the song was written for. Describing her friend as “one of the most special people I have ever met”, Juli explains: “A true Honky Tonk Angel deserving of the world. But she’s also had to pay. And it’s not been cheap.” Imagining heaven attempting to reclaim someone who belongs there turns the song into a tender plea for her to remain here instead. Its black-and-white visualiser/lyric video brings that mythology beautifully to life, placing Juli amongst the hills wearing angel wings before following her hitchhiking across country. With just two singles, Juli von Lou is already creating a world that feels remarkably complete – one filled with highways, heartbreak, angels and a romanticised America existing somewhere between reality and imagination.

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Unsurprisingly, that rhythm immediately stands out. Far removed from a conventional straight-ahead rock beat, it gives the opening an unusual, creeping quality before psychedelic guitars begin snaking their way into the mix, adding an increasingly shadowy and unsettling edge. ‘Beat’ gradually gains weight until thick, bluesy stoner-rock guitars take centre stage, transforming its initial unease into something much more muscular. Through it all, Joana Brito’s effortlessly cool vocal glides above the instrumentation, providing a laid-back counterpoint to the heaviness beneath. Close your eyes and it’s easy to picture endless dusty desert roads disappearing into the distance, with something ever so slightly sinister lurking beyond the horizon.

Lyrically, however, ‘Beat’ comes from a much more vulnerable place. “It’s a song on fragility, a song about standing in the corner, feeling alone, with nowhere to go,” explains Joana, before rejecting the pressure to conform: “There’s beauty in diversity, there’s love in equality and that’s all that matters.” It’s a powerful sentiment wrapped inside an impressively weighty slice of psychedelic stoner rock – and further proof that sometimes starting with the beat can take a song somewhere unexpected.

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