quinnie charms with dreamy debut album ‘flounder’
Quinn Barnitt’s first album is charmingly whimsical and demonstrates exactly why she should be on everyone’s radar.
Photo: Neto Velasco
Indie pop singer, quinnie, burst onto the online music scene last May when a 23-second snippet of her single touch tank went viral on TikTok. Since then, the song has racked up over 25 million streams and has proven that the bedroom pop artist is going to play a key role in the rise of ‘soft’ indie. Now featuring on her debut album, flounder, the song sits amongst a collection of sentimental tracks, helping to chart the often-confusing transition from teenagedom to adulthood in an all-encompassing album that feels like a fever dream.
Having written flounder between the ages of eighteen and twenty, quinnie effectively evokes the feeling of this strange transitional period through her authentic and relatable lyrics. This is shown through the album’s opener, man, where her wispy vocals take center stage to relate to the teenager in all of us, in a song about letting go of a toxic relationship. Accompanied by the gentle strums of an acoustic guitar, man successfully establishes everything that quinnie’s music is: whimsical, sensitive, and enchanting, before blending seamlessly into the effortlessly charming security question. A song that uses meandering guitar melodies to notice all of the intimate details in a relationship, whilst also creating a sense of childlike wonder.
The third track, itch, then embraces a fluttering folk rhythm as the lyrics describe the doubt that comes with loving the anticipation more than the moment. While touch tank maintains its status within the album via its driving beat and intriguing exploration of pleasure.
A yearning piano melody brings the understated popcorn & juice to a close, leading into get what u get; one of the different type of tracks on the album. Its heavy drumbeat and powerful rock chorus allow the one-minute song to hold its own despite its short length, highlighting exactly why we should be excited about this indie artist.
quinnie then continues to showcase her genre-defying diversity in emblem via fascinating bass rhythms and wandering pop melodies, with each instrument slowly fading in a quietly dramatic ending before better begins with its buzzing hums. better stands out as one of the more emotional songs on the album with its quiet, exposed vocals pulling you in for the lyrics to pull at your heartstrings: “And I haven’t felt right since that day / I met him publicly, he told me I was safe / But what’s lost if I’ve never changed / And what he did to me is just another ditty I can play.”
This emotional intake of the world is continued in promised, where quinnie’s breezy vocals appreciate life’s mundane moments amongst a blanket of instruments that gain pace in a swirling cinematic ending; reaffirming the song’s central message of appreciating the simple things. The idea is charmingly reinforced in flounder through the simple use of a guitar and some drums.
The album then finishes off with jake’s car, an interlude that rudely awakens you from this dreamy debut thanks to its short length and abrupt ending. This demonstrates that quinnie doesn’t force her music to drag on longer than she feels it has to; however, I would’ve loved to spend just a few more minutes in her dreamy world.
quinnie’s airy vocals and sentimental lyrics steal the spotlight throughout the record; nevertheless, the album is a charming retracing of her teenage years, which at many times is more than relatable. Through her collectivized approach, the songs flow beautifully from one to the other, allowing her to create an extremely cohesive and colorful unique album.
flounder is out now via Columbia Records.