Feelin’ Dizzy? Must be ‘The Sun and Her Scorch’
Canadian Indie Pop quartet Dizzy blend their dreamy ’90s jams with modern radio-friendly choruses on their latest album, “The Sun and Her Scorch.”
In the two years since the release of their debut album, “Baby Teeth,” which dealt predominantly with teenage woes, Katie Munshaw (lead vocals), Alex Spencer (guitar), Mackenzie Spencer (bass, vocals) and Charlie Spencer (drums, synthesizer, guitar, vocals) have won awards like Alternative Album of the Year and toured in the UK.
Shaping the band’s perspective, these experiences allowed them to express songs that paint an earnest portrait of the human condition.
“Worms” opens the album with a spacey synthesizer intro from Charlie Spencer, before atmospheric guitar runs, drums and vocals coalesce, resulting in a dark tone.
Lyrics like, “Reach your hand down to me and I will bite it. I’ve been sleeping with the worms and I’m used to it. Shine your light down to me and I’ll cling to it. I’ve been sleeping with the worms, I got used to it, I got used to it” set the theme of the record: The feeling of being underground, trapped and suffocated.
Similar to the lead song, “Sunflower,” with shimmering effects and flanged guitars addresses low, non-confident feelings: “Take me to the roof, I wanna hear the sound of what a broken heart does when I fling it to the ground, save for the waning moon there’s no one else around, I know that I’m asleep when all my teeth come falling out and all the walls, come caving in.”
This upbeat number acts as a wake up call, attempting to break the narrator out of their funk with the airy inquisition, “Sunflower (Sunflower), are you even really in there? (Are you even really in there?) Sunflower (Sunflower), are you even really in there? (Are you even really in there?).”
Bluntly confronting death, aging and the fear of the unknown, the first verse
“It can be hard to relate to people, especially when I’m not going to work every morning.”
Katie Munshaw lead vocalist, Dizzy
from the song “Good and Right” illustrates the power of Dizzy’s pen.
“How do you think you’ll die?” I ask you point black on a Tuesday night, In your sleep or hot wires? The meds that sedate? The hitman for hire? You smile then you take a pull from the beer I bought even though you drove and you’re off to the States tomorrow,” is just one example of a project full of tracks that opens a window of imagination, while listening to them.
Creating relatable settings, themes and characters for their music to explore, Dizzy’s formula, thus far, strikes a balance between experimentation and access.
Reflective Pop juggernaut, “Roman Candles,” tackles the holy grail of worries for established and would-be artists: their insecurities in an ever changing world.
“A lot of my friends went to university and they have nine-to-five jobs now and they’re starting to buy homes and have babies and it’s really bizarre to feel like I’m not even close to that,” Munshaw explained during an Apple Music interview. “The song is about being nervous and scared that I’ve made the wrong decision in pursuing music as a career. I feel like I’m being left behind in a way. I think it’s hard for people to understand music as a career when you’re not famous. If you’re not Dua Lipa, people are worried about you. They don’t realize that it is a career option. It can be hard to relate to people, especially when I’m not going to work every morning.”