Kevin Bronson on November 7th, 2023

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Musician and vintage-everything entrepreneur Rachel Gagliardi was one-half of the Philadelphia duo Slutever and played in Upset with Hole’s Patty Schemel and Vivian Girls’ Ali Koehler.

Gagliardi originally started her solo project Pouty a decade ago when she and Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) collaborated on a solo-song-a-day-project. Over the years, there have been two Pouty EPs and a handful of singles, but now Gagliardi has ramped up the project: “Forgot About Me,” Pouty’s debut album, will be out Feb. 9 via Get Better Records.

Made last year in L.A. and her native Philly with Superweaks’ Evan Bernard and Chris Baglivo, the album showcases Pouty’s cheeky, grungey power-pop. Two singles in, everything’s catchy, especially the attitude.

After releasing “Virgos Need More Love” earlier this fall, Pouty this week returned with the album’s lead track, “Salty,” a song that touches on the bittersweet regrets that come with getting older. “I bet you almost forgot about me / I’m not embarrassed / I can even accept it,” she sings.

The song is “an admission to the self that you are struggling with an identity crisis, a nod to past versions of yourself, and the growing pains that come with getting older,” Gagliardi says. “It also addresses the fear of being left out, of outgrowing places and people, of feeling discarded.”

||| Stream: “Salty” and “Virgos Need More Love”