Album review
Sabrina Teitelbaum has announced her sophomore album as Blondshell. If You Asked for a Picture, the follow-up to 2023’s Blondshell, lands on May 2 via Partisan. Along with the announcement, she’s shared the new single ‘T&A’. Check out its accompanying video, directed by Hannah Bon, below.
In a note accompanying the song’s press release, Teitelbaum said:
It feels impossible to think of anything other than the fires in Los Angeles right now. The city I’ve lived in for ten years is burning and the scale of the loss is incomprehensible. In a way it feels dumb to talk about music, but I also think the whole point of art is for it to exist in the context of pain as a small emotional respite… even if just for one moment.
Please stay safe. Thank you for letting me share this with you. 12 songs about searching for love, family and friendship in many right and wrong places. Out May 2
Some places to donate:
Mutual Aid LA: https://mutualaidla.org
LA Fire Department fundraiser: https://supportlafd.org/
Dog fostering signup sheet: https://www.caninerescue.club/foster
Speaking about ‘T&A’, Teitelbaum shared the following statement: “There’s a Rolling Stones song on Tattoo You called ‘Little T&A’ and at one point in the song, he says ‘tits and ass,’ so I’m borrowing that,” Teitelbaum explained in a statement. “I think in music, it’s easy to see things as either more sexualized or more romantic, and I wanted this to be both. I see it as a love story — maybe not the most fairy tale love story— but I wanted it to feel like a really narrative song, where one thing leads to another and then you end up somewhere you didn’t expect. Normally that’s not how I write, but I wanted a song like that.”
If You Asked For A Picture takes its title from a 1986 poem by Mary Oliver’s 1986 poem ‘Dogfish’. “There’s a part of the poem that says: ‘I don’t need to tell you everything I’ve been through. It’s just another story of somebody trying to survive,'” the singer-songwriter added. “Something I love about songs is that you’re showing a snapshot of a person or a relationship, and showing a glimpse into a story can be just as important as trying to capture the entire thing. Sometimes it’s even truer to the entire picture than if you tried to write everything down.”
If You Asked for a Picture Cover Artwork:
If You Asked for a Picture Tracklist:
1. Thumbtack
2. T&A
3. Arms
4. What’s Fair
5. Two Times
6. Event Of A Fire
7. 23’s A Baby
8. Change
9. Toy
10. He Wants Me
11. Man
12. Model Rockets
