Often Yearns for Growth and Acceptance on Beautifully Moody New EP "Bad Girls Cry"

With the release of her new EP Bad Girls Cry, Often returns with a trio of resoundingly introspective songs that attempt to confront and break cycles of behavior. The collection arrives as the Los Angeles-based artist’s follow-up to her 2021 debut album Dirty Saint — as well as last year’s standalone singles “Brightstar” and “Cross Me.” With its unveiling also comes the tentative possibility that a tour in support of the EP is in the works!

Bad Girls Cry finds Often taking a conscious arduous step toward illuminating the blind spots of self-reflection to identify the personal delusions holding her back. Like the warm and cool auras emanating from her silhouette on the EP’s cover, she emerges from this inward delving filled with a radiant knowing, accepting the necessary growth that comes with acknowledging the complicity we have in our own vexing problems.

“Cinnamon” opens the EP with a loop of stridently buoyant tones that bend and waver against Often’s dulcet breathy vocals. Against this steady and robust rhythm comes an onslaught of hard truths — “Hate it but it might be right / I’m a product of my own little lies” — and reckonings with malignant obsessions.

On its closing track “Fire Escape,” she conjures spacey-ethereal ebullience and creates a sense of urgency with the pulsating beats, dreaming of a swift getaway. Again those powerfully vibrating strikes cut through the melancholia as Often’s vocals rise with fervent hope toward some elusive release.

“Bad Girls Cry” — the second and title track of the EP — distinguishes itself from the other two songs both melodically and emotionally. Amidst booming piano keys and mesmeric warbles come lucid admissions and revelatory acceptance. The music video for the song was created by Often in her living room and presents two sublime visions of the artist: one illuminated by a violet light with black sparkling tears streaming down her face, the other lit by deep blues and bedazzled. Its hypnotic visuals capture the two conflicting sides of herself she is consumed by.