CARR’s sophomore record, ‘CARRGIRRL,’ is the best of punk yearning – with playful jokes, mosh-worthy beats, and heart wrenching declarations of love.

by guest writer Kelsey Ferrell

Stream: “Hardcore!” – CARR

As her lead single, “Hardcore!” testifies, CARR is offering a lot on her sophomore record.

Full of fresh hooks, CARRGIRRL is nine tracks of blast-worthy indie rock.

Releasing on March 20th, the album precedes CARR’s summer tour, where she’ll open for The Cab across several cities on both coasts. While her 2023 release, The CARR Show, leaned into the pop of pop punk, CARRGIRRL errs on the indie rock side of the spectrum. The sound of this record is reminiscent of CARR’s early EPs, I’m Just Bored and TV Boyfriends, but carves out new territory with some of her funniest lyrics to date and drum beats that will encourage even the meekest to join a mosh pit.

I meet up with CARR at a park in Pasadena, where we choose a picnic table to sit at and immediately find ourselves being greeted by a friendly dog. The owner offers us dog treats, and CARR extends her hand eagerly for milk bones. We take turns petting the pit bull and letting him eat the treats from our hands, then dive into discussing the new album.

“To me, it just gave opening track. It just radiated the chaos that I wanted the album to be,” she says of choosing “Hardcore!” as the first song and first single. The verse is guided by a pulsing bass, and the chorus bursts with claps and shouts. “It did get rejected from a lot of playlisting because of the cover. They said it was pornographic,” she adds, bursting into laughter. I find the cover to be all good fun; showing CARR skipping on the sidewalk, her skirt lifting up for the slightest peek.

She’s also released an acoustic version of “Hardcore!,” which creates a fun dialectic between the gentle guitar strums and the title. The earnestness of this rendition reminds me of the sweeter love songs from the pop punk and emo tradition – “Good Riddance” by Green Day, and “The Only Exception” by Paramore. Underneath all that noise, punks are the truest yearners. Why else would there be a viral TikTok sound of Pete Wentz declaring, “I’m sorry, every single song is about you.”

Wentz has been CARR’s mentor for several years through the DCD2 label, and when I mention his viral TikTok audio, she immediately confesses that she’s “obsessed with that sound.” I also never tire of hearing it when I’m scrolling. “A lot of punk lyrics are lowkey yearny,” she adds. “Punk are def yearners, and I am unfortunately one of them.”

I’m not surprised, then, when she tells me that the acoustic version of “Hardcore!” is one of Wentz’s favorites. “He tends to always like the more introspective songs,” she said. “He likes ‘Mud’ a lot. He’s very much like, ‘whatever you like is how it should be.’”

“Mud” was released as a single in January. “This is feeling overrated, I know I shouldn’t entertain it, but you got me fascinated,” she sings on the second verse, describing the push and pull of someone who doesn’t seem to want to commit but who’s always a good time. CARR says it might be her personal favorite from the record, but soft spots for several other tracks come up as she explains the recording process.

“We had the demos done in LA over the last year or two, and I pretty much picked my favorite ones, give or take,” she explains. “We brought those demos to Christian Medice, who’s the producer I made my last album with. I work with him a lot. I went to upstate New York, cause he just moved to this really nice house upstate in the woods.” They recorded the album in a week there. “We locked in,” explains CARR. “I wouldn’t say I’m outdoorsy, but I loved the woods,” she explains of the scenery outside the window.

She brings up “Third Date” as another favorite of hers from the record, which is my personal top track. “You listen to me when I talk, you let me play my indie rock,” she sings. The sound of it feels the same way having a crush does, transfiguring simple qualities into romantic gestures because one’s view of the other person is just that sugar coated. You don’t gotta wait till the third date, she sings to her muse. I can already imagine the kick drum being perfectly timed with someone leaning in for a kiss in a coming of age movie.

Another standout track is “Alien Rat Boyfriend,” which is “kind of psychotic,” as CARR says with a laugh, with lyrics like: “you and me, we’re really meant to be, you even broke my windshield just so I could see.” She mentions the person she wrote it about also inspired her to make sure there was a clip of her reading American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis in the “Hardcore!” music video. “There’s something a little sick about it,” she says of “Alien Rat Boyfriend.” She insists everyone “has to” watch the American Psycho movie adaptation, when I ask her if she has outside media to recommend to her fans.

But just as much as she pushes the boundaries of romance on this track, she proves her range even further when she turns back to sincerity on the final track, “Tennis Balls.” It’s worth comparing “Tennis Balls” to “I Like Dogs,” from her first album, The CARR Show. The sultry, surging lamentation of trying to ignore the situationship she ran into during a night out is my favorite from her 2023 debut. “You’re such a f*ing dog,” she sings scornfully of the guy blowing her off, despite affirming how much she still wants him in the title of the song.

But in “Tennis Balls,” she sings of her love for her actual dog, Zeppelin, in a soft, finger picking closer that is unforgettably tender. “I had the idea for Tennis Balls because I have the worst anxiety about my dog dying, which is so morbid, but it crosses my mind everyday,” she explains of her anticipatory grief. “Your tennis balls cover the floor, I’ll buy you a million, I’ll buy out the store,” she promises. “My dog is obsessed with tennis balls, they’re all over my apartment all the time, and he’s just the best. People with dogs will relate to it; anyone who has a pet that you just love more than anything.”

“Tennis Balls” also reminds me of her track, “Sudden Death,” a 2022 release that’s one of my all time favorites from CARR, and just so happens to feature her dog, Zeppelin, on the cover art. “Ah yes, justice for Sudden Death,” she agrees when I bring it up. A tender love song, it serves as proof that CARR can cover all bases from the raunchy to the heartfelt.

As she looks forward to the future, CARR mentions wanting to keep writing sentimental songs in addition to playful punk hits, and getting back on the road and touring again.

CARRGIRRL drops on March 20th, and release shows are in the works for Los Angeles and New York City this spring. After that, she’ll embark on the summer tour with The Cab.

“I miss the energy and being with my band,” she says, “hanging out with my friends, meeting fans, that whole vibe.”

It’s easy to imagine fans singing along to every song on CARRGIRRL with her – on my car ride home, I find myself singing to the album’s fourth track, “Bang It Out,” feeling inspired to text a guy I shouldn’t see – just the way every good CARR song starts.

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Kelsey Ferrell is an author, songwriter, comic, and film maker. She holds an MFA from UC Riverside and a BA from UC Berkeley. Her writing has been featured or is forthcoming in The Good Life Review, Pinky, Vagabond City, and Current Affairs. She makes music under her artist name, Feral, and one of her songs was on the season 1 soundtrack to Amazon Prime’s We Were Liars. Her film, Donkumentary, which profiles the feral donkey herds of the inland empire, is in post-production. You can check out more of her work at www.kelseyferrell.com.

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Stream: “Bang It Out” – CARR

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