Immediately following a two-week tour, Gianna Lauren entered the studio and, after a mere four days, emerged with her now fourth release, Vanity Metrics. This is the latest release from Lauren since her full-length album Moving Parts in 2017. Recorded live off the floor at the Old Confidence Lodge in Nova Scotia, this is Lauren at her most grounded, pulling influences from groups like Big Thief and Weyes Blood.
As is evident in the title, Vanity Metrics touches on themes of identity and social perception, or, as Lauren puts it, “struggling with the balance of being a real human and an online persona.” It’s a topic she wastes no time unravelling, beginning with “Spark”, the EP’s opening track. Over jolted and crunchy electric guitar chords, Lauren herself has called this her “angstiest song ever”. It’s a laid back, solemn head-nodder that crawls before it walks, and lyrically fits like a glove over the tone she’s created.
“Some days I feel alive,
Some days I need to hide,
See I’m a machine and I break down sometimes”
Each track on Vanity Metrics builds in a similar way, with Lauren makes no effort to keep things neat. The rhythm feels jolted, even staccato at times, offering plenty of moments with an abundance of dead space in the background. Lauren practically employs it as an instrument; it’s what she does with this dead space that elevates it into something grander.
There’s no greater example of this than “Innocent Tourist”, where Lauren crafts a track filled with detail and intrigue; like a mosaic of moments. From the choir sections to the crawling guitars that billow through the verses, Lauren’s sense of pacing is proved immaculate on this track. All over a satisfying hook that brings an artist like Faye Webster to mind.
The five-song project wraps up with “Disappear”, a guitar ballad where we follow Lauren as she prepares to drag herself to a party. On this track, we come to see the effects that balancing the real and the digital can have on a person.
“Tonight you’re going out,
Whether you like it or not,
Like it or not at all,
But as soon as you get there you go on and disappear.”
On Vanity Metrics, Gianna Lauren throws a heavy punch – she dives deep into the fray of how it feels to be real when so much of what surrounds us is not, to create an EP that knows how to balance angst against sound.