Lily Konigsberg – Sweat Forever (Wharf Cat)
Ahead of debut album Lily We Need To Talk Now Lily Konigsberg (Palberta) released single Sweat Forever, a blend of strummed guitar and effects, on Wharf Cat.
Artist: Lily Konigsberg
Track: Sweat Forever
Label: Wharf Cat
Released: 15 September 2021
Find it: Bandcamp | Spotify
With a warm acoustic at its heart, sweetly sung lyrics, and a playfulness through the half-spoken interjections and synth effects the new single Sweat Forever from Lily Konigsberg fair smirks at you. With the knowing flicker that comes from experience, this was the first song written for the album and brings you through the challenge of change to the denouement which speaks to not just survival, but growth.
Fizzingly light in production and bright in instrumentation there’s so much strength and self-belief packed in under 3 minutes. Lyrics which could be shouted, screamed, sobbed in the heat of the moment are sung with the self-awareness distance brings and become puckish, daring you to do anything but smile. The 12-string acoustic strums on as synths swish around the track, electro beats dropping in and out, crisp production bringing out the weight of cooling of feelings hidden in the songs pop depths.
‘I’m a Gemini / I can make you sweat forever’
Konigsberg says of the track, “It’s mostly about the bad part of going through a huge change in your life and the confusion surrounding that. But now I’m in the good part, so there’s something to celebrate. Sweat on brother!”
Having previously been described by Pitchfork as, ‘at the center of a Venn diagram containing haunted dolls, Arthur Russell, and Ariana Grande’ with this track Konigsberg continues to show off her pop chops, with a an album which comes off the back of a breakup but is filled with love more than bitterness. With humour throughout, and paying homage to punk pop as only a real music head could, Konigsberg has been working on the record since 2016, leaning in to the joy of collaboration and marking it as one of the releases to get really excited about this autumn.
Sweat Forever by Lily Konigsberg is out now digitally via Wharf Cat. Album Lily We Need To Talk Now follows on 29 October 2021.
Find Lily Konigsberg: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Bandcamp
Photo: Felix Walworth
If you have enjoyed reading this piece on Popoptica you can buy us a virtual coffee via Ko-fi – every donation helps us to do what we do. We’d love it if you shared on social media too – and do join the conversation with us on Twitter and Facebook.
Find out what other new music has been exciting us recently and get in touch if you want to submit music or contribute to Popoptica.
Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
Latest posts by Sarah Lay (see all)
- Fightmilk / Jemma Freeman and The Cosmic Something / Nervous Twitch – Dubrek, Derby – live review - 1st December 2021
- Indietracks: An epitaph - 16th November 2021
- MALKA and Inge Thomson – The Bliss (Tantrum Records) - 11th October 2021