Appearing 3 months after "Keep Your Name", there is no official mention of whether "Little Bubble" will be part of a new Dirty Projectors LP or EP. It nevertheless appears that the Brooklyn sextet may have been reduced to a one man show by vocalist and guitarist David Longstreth: the only band member credited for both tracks.
The key refrain 'We had our own little bubble/ For a while' thus comes across as being especially poignant, although the music video - which features the motif of a dead white pidgeon and Longstreth staring at a tablet screen in the dark and on a snowy plain, besides brooding in other scenic locations - suggest that other concerns may also be lingering in Longstreth's mind. (In light of recent developments in world events, other forms of bubbles come to mind: social media bubbles, privilege bubbles, discourse bubbles, property market bubbles).
The track's sonic and lyrical minimalism allows the mournful melancholy in Longstreth's vocals to take center stage, with glitchy digital sounds, strings, a trombone and an intricate melody to layer the track with emotional complexity:
'MorningThere's no one else hereI'm alone in the coldOctober light hits like a black holeGrowling greatnessSentry of emptinessIt's not enough, whatever I dreamed ofDreams are dumb and meaninglessLike the days they refractBut are dull, empty and sadI wanna sleep with no dreamsI want to be dead'
Lyrics: Genius
Longstreth's vocals are more subdued than operatic, but this digital ballad comes across as a sonic and thematic cousin to Weyes Blood's "Generation Why". But while Mering looks outward to take on the tragedy of modern humanity as a panorama, Longstreth digs deep to excavate the bitterness and anguish within.
