By Emma Weidmann | Arts and Life Editor
If you’ve never listened to Del Water Gap, there’s no time like the present. Open up that Spotify app and hit play on his newest album, “I Miss You Already + I Haven’t Left Yet.”
I’m going to go out on a limb and make a bold statement here: This may be the best indie album of 2023. It’s a mind-blowing and refreshing piece of indie pop mastery. If you’re into bands like LANY, lauv and COIN, you’ll fall in love with Del Water Gap — hard.
“All We Ever Do Is Talk” opens the album on a sonically peppy note. Lyrically, it reads like a breakup song, but it really isn’t one. Del Water Gap, whose real name is S. Holden Jaffe, ruminates on a relationship that is meaningful to him, although the dynamic has changed. The chorus puts us back in the memory of a time when Jaffe and his partner were more adventurous and wild, a time of youthful abandon and recklessness that he longs to regain.
He gets the point of the album across so well in this opening track. The verses are more laid-back and anxiety-riddled, while the chorus bursts into flame with the energy of their past, as if the memory is seeping color into the monotony of the present.
“IMYA+IHLY” is not your classic breakup album. Even though songs like “All We Ever Do Is Talk” characterize the tone of the record, it’s more a reminiscence and journey through memory and the past, rather than a rehashing of the intricacies of one past relationship.
“Losing You” is a good example of this. The second track, it continues the tumultuous story of a couple who does not only a lot of talking but also a lot of arguing. The melody of “Losing You” is one of its biggest draws, and the chorus packs a punch.
My favorite track, “NFU,” has that grand, operatic feel that marks the best of indie pop. Nostalgic and sweeping, it feels like cold air and hands buried deep in a puffer jacket. It sounds like a city at night, and it crushes your heart like a long-lost love.
Continuing with the theme of memories and the past, “NFU” has one of the best lyrics on the album. Simple yet packed with emotion, this line is buried within the bridge of the song, but it sticks with you.
He sings, “that’s the thing about memory, you can never trust it,” and it flips the entire song on its head. Coming soon after the lyrics, “if you were the love of my life, there’s no way that you’re not sorry,” it shows Jaffe rethinking what was even real in the first place. Was it really the love of his life? He can’t trust the memories to give him an answer.
Track five, “Doll House,” is upbeat and hopeful, perhaps the most hopeful of all the tracks. It’s all about the human experience and companionship. “It’s hard enough to be human,” Jaffe sings, “and worse when you’re on your own.” He offers his ear, and he captured mine with “Doll House.”
“Doll House” is fun and sweet, and it’s all in all a really enjoyable song.
My first listen of track six, “Gemini,” initially left me a little unsure. Thirty seconds in, I honestly didn’t like the direction of it. The beginning of the song is more spoken than sung, laid over a staccato piano instrumental, almost reminiscent of Kendrick Lamar’s “United In Grief.”
But as the song plays on and reaches the chorus, it grows on me quite a bit. Its whistle-y and playful sound almost mimics the indecisiveness of the aforementioned Gemini, as is said to be the reputation of the sign. This Gemini is torn between two ideals: caring for their mental health and going for a person they see a relationship with.
“Coping on Unemployment” has that fresh sound that hits you immediately, and it single-handedly broke me out of my music slump. When this song found me, none of my playlists were hitting like they used to. All my favorites were boring and overplayed. Enter Del Water Gap, and my days of boring old music were over. It was a miracle.
Being the lead single, this is the first song from “IMYA+IHLY” that I heard. The story goes like this: I was driving, and it came on shuffle on an indie pop playlist curated by Spotify. I was so blown away that I added it to my own playlists as soon as I was parked again.
With a high-energy and scream-worthy chorus, it’s perfectly suited for a drive and captures the 20-something feeling like a butterfly in a jar — fluttery, excitable and ever-changing.
“Gone in Seconds” contains another one of my favorite lyrics on the album. The song examines the feeling of staring up at the ceiling, wondering what went wrong. If you’ve ever sat there and questioned just why something that meant the world to you had to end, Del Water Gap wrote “Gone in Seconds” just for you.
He sings, “you can count the rings on the wood without cutting down the tree.”
As soon as I heard this lyric, I paused the song. I had to soak it in for a second before I could listen more. It’s the whole album in one line, even more encapsulating than the lyrics in “NFU.” As he looks back on his relationship, he thinks you don’t have to cut it down to take stock of it for what it was and appreciate its worth.
Memory, love, dysfunction: The album in a whole.
