Words by Sophia Campanella
After so much anticipation from fans, Caroline Quinn has released her debut EP, “THE END OF MAY.” Through the five tracks, Caroline takes her listeners on a journey through her life stories and emotions. With her upbeat melodies, thoughtful lyrics about mental illness and grief, and unique and powerful production by Ross Bellenoit, Caroline Quinn is on track to join the ranks of indie pop girl girlies.
Caroline Quinn started gaining online popularity early this year. She posted a TikTok video in February, featuring popular artists and their old day jobs. The video reads, “Chappell Roan worked in a donut shop, Lady Gaga was a server, I’m working as a barista to support my music career.” The video also featured a snippet of her second-ever released single, “ALIEN ON MY MIND.” The post took off immediately and, over time, has gathered 4.1 million views and 600,000 likes. The post also blew up her single “ALIEN ON MY MIND,” with the song just reaching 100,000 streams on Spotify.
Caroline isn’t afraid to get vulnerable. The opening track, “Lost For Words,” is a personal song that opens up about the feelings of being stuck in one’s thoughts. With lyrics like “lying awake / ruminating over and over / fighting a phrase / fearful answers left for another” and “pick up the pace / it’s blissful in the day / then in the night / it’s hunting time for prey” paint a descriptive picture of those anxieties and fears we often get during the night, something common that not many people like to talk about. The song is a perfect opening track for the EP. To me, it feels like it’s about realizing that you may not be okay, or simply coming to a moment of realization in general. Caroline proves this well in the chorus of the song: “and now I explain what you had done to me / I’m lost for words in therapy / I love you was a promise and a threat,” where she proudly talks about how opening up in therapy opened up her mind.
The following track, “Child’s Play,” ties nicely into “Lost For Words,” as it takes a sharp turn from Caroline’s usual sound, featuring haunting soundscapes and airy guitar. The change in sound reminds me of the feelings associated with the anxieties and thoughts that arise after having that moment of realization or clarity. The beginning verse starts with eerie narratives, saying “pass me a dagger / sleep with it at night / here’s my defenses / to freeze in fight or flight.” The eerie lyrics quickly slip into spiraling thoughts, with the chorus saying “as the days go by I’ll wanna change / but in a week I know that I’ll still be the same / steady as a nightmare in my brain / hold me I’m about to go insane this is only child’s play.”
The third song and first single of the EP, “Obituaries,” is another very vulnerable song, but also a bold one. Unafraid to touch on any topics, Caroline Quinn talks about grief and ruminating on your own death. Caroline starts the song with a string of questions running through her mind, singing “what would you write about me if I was dying? / what would you say to the world to encapsulate? / would it be easy to think of obituaries?” Caroline goes more in-depth about writing “Obituaries” in a recent interview, where she discusses how the lyrics stem from her thoughts and past. She says, “I have this video of me in my car just asking, ‘what would you write about me if I was dying?’ I think about it all the time. I had two friends pass away within the same year when I was 17 and I sang at both of their funerals and it left this lasting impact on me. Getting to see their friend and family connecting with them and knowing them made me think even more about those things.” Caroline is incredible for the way she opens up about death and grief in “Obituaries,” as it’s something many people can’t express through songwriting.
“In The Garden” is the fourth track on “THE END OF MAY,” and also where the name of the EP comes from. With many garden and floral metaphors, it perfectly depicts the feeling of personal growth and giving your heart to others. The opening lyrics tie perfectly with the rest of the EP, as Caroline sings “I showed you my scars and you picked at them / like you were digging for someone else / sitting in a field breaking blades of grass / You craved the finished product but / you can’t hold on to what you own / why do i even bother trying / scared my garden might be dying.” It’s a beautiful trope that helps illustrate what it’s like to be in a relationship that lacks room for growth. The chorus clearly conveys these feelings, as the song continues with “Every time something bloomed someone plucked it away / if spring comes around I’ll be dead by the end of May.” It’s a beautiful portrait of the complexities of a stagnant relationship.
The final song of the EP, “Who I’ve Been,” is a personal favorite of mine, mainly for the video-game-like quality of the production. It was a clear vision Caroline Quinn had for the song from the beginning. Caroline made a social media post a week before the project’s release, featuring an edit with all of her favorite video games, accompanied by a snippet of the song in the background. The post says, “This is my song ‘Who I’ve Been, and I wanted it to sound like the soundtrack to a video game about my life. Then I wrote the song, I thought of myself as a character in a side-scroller game. These are all comfort games to me, even when they felt scary, so this is my song. Maybe one day it will be in a video game that someone plays to feel seen, to feel less alone, to feel brave, to find friends, to remind us of who we are, just like these games did for me.” The production perfectly complements the yearning nature of the lyrics. Not yearning for someone, but yearning for a different ending. In the first verse, Caroline sings “I wanna meet you / if you would listen / you never met me, what don’t you care about / I wanna meet you / before it began / before you knew how to break me with your hands.” The video game production gives you a feeling of yearning for a restart, wishing life were a video game where you can just go back and do it differently, but the high-pitched, dreamy sounds take you out of reality, because we can’t start over. It’s a beautiful closing track that still leads you to wanting more of Caroline’s music.
With the rise in Caroline Quinn fans and with the release of her new project, many people are eager for more Caroline music and want to see her live shows. Her music is reaching far all over the country, with fans traveling over 3 hours to see the small Philadelphia-based singer. Caroline Quinn has many live performances planned in the Philadelphia area, one of the most exciting being at The Fallser Club on August 16th, which will include performances from Fiona McHugh and Kikashima. It will be an event fans in the area will not want to miss.
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