Stream: Poppy Jean Crawford, ‘Same Old Tricks’

on
1
Poppy Jean Crawford at Echo Park Rising 2019 (Photo by Zane Roessell)

Like the live shows that made her a don’t-miss artist when she was a teenager, Poppy Jean Crawford’s new single “Same Old Tricks” sneaks up on you. It enters the darkened room of your mind with the foreboding beat of a bass and drum, her haunting wail leading into a wall of sound suggesting she is trying to shake loose the chains of constraint. The same-ol’ same-ol’, as it were.

The single is the first from Crawford’s forthcoming EP “JeanJeanie,” arriving Nov. 1 via her new label home, Danger Mouse’s 30th Century Records. Her sound is somewhere between shoegaze, goth rock and alternative, with shifting dynamics that find moments of beauty in dissonance.

The daughter of a filmmaker mother and artist father, Crawford schooled herself in L.A.’s DIY scene, hanging out at places such as the Smell and taking an interest in writing music. “Soon enough,” she says, “I dropped out of school. I thought, fuck it, I know what I’m supposed to do.”

In a wail and then a roar, “Same Old Tricks” is the next step on that mission.

||| Stream: “Same Old Tricks”

||| Previously: “Wheel”