Abby Sage finds purpose in the putrefaction of the self on her debut album The Rot. Although just as alluring as the melodies found on her The Florist EP, the sounds and sentiments of her first LP take a decidedly grave and intimate turn. She also has plans to take all ten of its engrossing tracks on the road in a few months with dates in the U.S. and Europe/U.K. that include a stop at El Cid in Los Angeles on May 6th.
“The Rot album focuses on the decomposition and reconstruction of everything I was taught growing up,” Sage said of the record. “It’s choosing what to take as truth and what to rebuild in my mind to fit what I now believe. I wanted The Rot to cover a pretty long span of time. I felt it was important to address what shaped my childhood, what shapes me now, and everything in between. It’s what I carry with me and what I choose to let go. I think rotting is a perfect visual for this process because of the cyclical nature. Things rot and then something new grows because of it, like ideas and values.”
That reconfiguration begins with “Milk,” where nostalgia is rendered unnerving, as she peaks through a grimy lens at the sublimely soiled freedom of youth. “I wanna drink my milk in my own filth,” Sage coos with yearning sadness and glee. “I wanna dress my body in silver silk.” On the spacy and crystalline alt-pop of “Three Floors, Three Doors” she continues to stare into her adolescence. A silvery-shimmering disco soundtracking the poignantly retraced steps of a childhood home, passing over and through those surreal thresholds with ethereal vigor.
The sensual hypnotism of “Jude” — where droning guitars and synths illuminate the gleaming whisps of Sage’s vocals — and the lulling “Hunger” both wrestle with a yearning for companionship and a desire to unencumber herself of shame. Endeavoring to orient her consciousness with those around her tracks like “Soak,” a mesmeric whirlpool that finds in her floundering in a swell of dually melancholic but tranquilizing tones, also poses questions of identity within a multitude: “Does it matter / Do they even hear me talk / Let me soak and wash into the crowd / Throw my body in spin me around.”
“Phantom Arm,” with its almost whimsical melody, delivers a potent and decisively poetic metaphor for intrusive thoughts or memories — “It’s a slap / In the face / From a phantom arm” — be it a latent trauma or a bout of depression. Then there’s “Obstruction,” a visceral confrontation with the nebulous but colossal obstacles of the mind and heart that plague daily life, pestering you with their persistence like dust or mold. The song’s resounding refrain — “Cut it out with a knife” — echoes with virulent urgency.
The Rot follows Sage through a strange and unnerving but ultimately necessary metamorphosis. One that finds her confronting painfully extricated truths about herself and the world around her as a means of growth. Like the gargantuan paper mache appendages she created for certain songs — amassing to form the monstrous and ghastly figure that cradles her on the album’s cover — Sage tenderly mines the repulsive in the hopes of cultivating something new in its place.
As you reach the end, that long-awaited transformation starts to take shape on its title track and final song “The Rot.” This haunting but heartfelt lullaby festers with the mantra that resounds across the entire album — “Lean into the rot / Revel in the mud” — consoling and pressing herself forward. Embracing in the process a grotesque and ungainly evolution for the promise of rebirth it offers: “My bed is never made / I know what I’m not / One foot out the grave / Leaving from the rot.” Sage’s words resound with all the sagacious and hard-won knowledge of a person who has run a squalid gauntlet and emerged out the other side.
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The Rot is available on all streaming platforms. See Abby Sage live at El Cid in Los Angeles on Monday, May 6th.
Visit Abby Sage on her Bandcamp, TikTok, and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Abby Sage tour
May 06 – Los Angeles, CA – El Cid
May 08 – San Francisco, CA – Cafe Du Nord
May 10 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Block Party
May 12 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right
May 18 – Brussels, BE – Witloof Bar
May 21 – Berlin, DE – Lark
May 23 – Paris, FR – Le POPUP Du Label
May 24 – London, UK – The Lower Third
Listen to The Rot the new album from Abby Sage below!
Abby Sage
The Rot
March 1st, 2024
1. Milk
2. Three Floors, Three Doors
3. Jude
4. Phantom Arm
5. Hunger
6. Soak
7. Obstruction
8. Little Dove (interlude)
9. Back & Bone
10. The Rot
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