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Jul 12, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Francois Mittins

Last month, Canadian art pop outfit Pony Girl returned with news of their forthcoming fourth full-length album, Laff It Off. Described as a sister album to last year’s Enny One Wil Love You, the band pares back some of the kaleidoscopic aspects of their sound and finds the band at their most raw and vital, an aspect that was readily apparent within the surging chants of the record’s title track.

The band says of the record, “We recorded both albums during the same studio session. We went in with the goal of recording one album and came out with two. Whoops. As such, the two releases are relatives. We call them sister albums. We decided to embrace the “live” aspects of our sound for this album. Enny One saw us explore modern sounds and heavy-handed production tricks. On Laff, we’re embracing raw single takes and subtleties in our sound. It’s much more dynamic and contemplative.”

The full album is out on October 27th via Paper Bag Records, but today the band are back with another new track, “I Believe In Nothing,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“I Believe In Nothing” is the band at their most swirling and propulsive, driven by distorted guitars, driving basslines, and an entrancing haze of effects. The effect is almost narcotic, locking you in a psychedelic blend of textures, rhythms, and minimalist lyrics. The track steadily builds in intensity, hitting its apex near the end with a climax of careening drum work. Yet, the vocals remain sparse and buried, repeating like a mantra: “I believe in nothing / Everything was beautiful / And nothing hurt.”

The band says of the track’s creation, “In terms of the approach we took to recording ‘I Believe In Nothing,’ this track is a total outlier. We arranged it late at night in the studio, agreed to a loose structure, and improvised the rest. The song was recorded in one take… It was a loud repetitive meditation for us. We wanted to get lost in the pressure of sound, the cyclical bass line, the crushed drums, and spazzy guitar riffs. “I Believe In Nothing” was our mantra. The complete studio take is actually several minutes longer. So the only edit made was deciding where to end the track on our LP.”

They continue, saying of the lyrics, “‘Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt’ is from the anti-war book Slaughterhouse-Five. When you first read the line, out of context, you sorta imagine that it’s a peaceful way to live: find the beauty in everything, and nothing will hurt you. In context, it is a bit different. The main character time travels; he knows when he will die, and what the rest of his life entails. This knowledge creates a sense of apathy which alienates and isolates him from everyone else. Kurt Vonnegut was a satirist and likely meant to say that life isn’t always beautiful, and it’s going to hurt a lot of the time. Thematically, the song lets itself loose on the album. It embodies the meaning of ‘laughing it off,’ letting it bead over you like water. It’s finding comfort in the absurdity and meaninglessness that can surround us.”

Check out the song and video below. Laff It Off is out everywhere on October 27th via Paper Bag Records.