Abbie Ozard - 'TV Kween'

Delving deep into her personal feelings of insecurity "constantly aspiring to be someone other than yourself"; Abbie Ozard's latest single 'TV Kween' taps into anxiety with an emotional maturity and self-reflexive artfulness that has made the Manchester based artist one of the UK's most promising talents.

A poptimist teen anthem with a serious message and irresistible feel good vibe, 'TV Kween' unpacks its complex theme with a tenderness and honesty that is at once profoundly relatable and satisfyingly immediate. Lyrically the track meanders through its protagonists search for fulfillment, while hinting that what is presented as desirable may in-fact be artificial.

There are knowingly saccharine elements to the song such as lyrically likening things to "cookie dough ice-cream" which individually may seem familiar or comforting but taken in context, clearly fall short of satisfying. This is echoed in the music video which sees Abbie mixing fruit-loop cereal with a can of Stella Artois in a sickly culinary juxtaposition which thankfully makes its way from spoon to the sink.

This signaling of  artificial qualities only intensifies when one begins to take note of the decidedly Meta elements of the song as the listener tunes in to the song so does the lyrical protagonist "tune in to my favorite station", the music video contains a music video in a song dreaming of a video, and at the end of the video the screen fills with haze and smoke and a copy of Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs Dalloway' (a high-modernist novel noted for its chronotopically challenging narrative devices which hinge upon the relation between dreams, memory and hallucination) is glimpsed enforcing the inference of an intertextuality that is not immediately apparent on first watch/listen.

It's all good stuff and there is evident humour and wit at work here which does much to lighten the single and turns a track of pre-occupation and rumination into something that while critical and pensive remains engaging and hopeful. I was particularly taken by sweet chorus hook and the summery Beach Indie instrumentation which rises on a warm sirocco air beyond the lofty boltholes of bedroom pop, towards the shimmering guitars and hazy vocals that typify the more ethereal vapours of Dream-pop. This is an excellent listen.

'TV Kween', is out now via LAB Records