Fresh tattoos, nicotine stains, cheap booze, and heartbreak under a twilight suburban sky greet me every time Normal State begins to play.
The long-running project from Maryland-based artist Covelline Blue is back in full force with the latest release, The Only Little Part of Your Life You’re Keeping Together.
Fresh off a tour with underground troubadours Elvis Depressedly, this new extended play of eight songs paints a vivid picture of youthful milieu through a raw, low-fidelity aesthetic bleeding with honesty. The project is currently exclusively available on Bandcamp.
It’s a portrait of heartache, addiction, and fleeting beauty in suburban America.
It’s a return to the basement of a college town, a long drive late at night.
It’s the car sitting idle at a reservoir as a couple undress one another in the backseat.
The record is sincere storytelling delivered in its purest form. The project was written, performed, and recorded on an iPhone. Much of the production was completed in just a few takes.
Amid the haze of the home recording, Blue’s voice cuts through the work like the vivid memories their performance evokes.
“This collection is truly like a diary to me—a glimpse inside my chaotic life—a warning—a love letter,” Blue shared. “I hope these songs reach the people that need to hear them, and I hope they feel like a hug.”
The project’s opening track, “There u were,” offers a thesis for the narrative and aesthetic basis of the endeavor, straddling the edge of crisis with the hopeful promise of a brighter future.
The song opens the record with the lyric, “I saw your soul in a photograph.”
It’s romantic, it’s tragic, and it’s filled with nostalgia, evoking a teenage ballad from the early 1960s, as heard in the song’s chord progression and Blue’s echoed vocal performance.
“I’m Fine! Everything is Fine!” follows with an exploration of the lowest emotional depths through a haunting electric piano and a crunchy drum beat. This continues as “Rock Bottom” builds out wider narratives outlined in the work and offers another strong vocal performance.
“Heart Shaped Bruise” centers on the work’s nostalgic aesthetic, as Blue’s croon evokes images of a teenage summer—equal parts romance, sadness, and frustration—accompanied by the steady strum of an acoustic guitar.
The song is brought to a crescendo with added symphonic texture, as Blue’s blaring vocals bring the recording to the brink of collapse.
It is outstanding.
“Running” conjures images of drug-infused romance, accompanied by an angelic, haunting vocal chorus.
“Tulip St.” delivers a pop-punk melody, reviving the strong imagery and milieu-fueled textures first heard in the EP’s opening track. It continues the theme of drug abuse, depicting the endless thirst of addiction with a few strong references to the Chesapeake region where the artist resides.
A key highlight of the piece is Blue’s decision to double-track the lead vocal performance.
“On Earth” revives some motifs from the preceding song, with the added twist of a dreamy groove—although it’s a cover of peers Elvis Depressedly.
“Sweet 17,” with its raw analog hiss, closes out the recording with a tragic depiction of substance abuse and hospitalization. The song is wrapped in a layer of cognitive dissonance, thanks to a rather joyful chord progression—the only instrument accompanying the tragic scene sung by Blue’s solitary vocal track. A single, perplexing chorus effect adds one more brief layer of texture before the song—and the EP—comes to a close.
With striking imagery and an aesthetic that revives the tragic romance of iconic oldies hits of the 1950s and 1970s, The Only Little Part of Your Life You’re Keeping Together is a one-of-a-kind experience.
The result is a piece of music that is intimate, raw, and forthright. And that is everything you could ask for.
