Chicago garage pop quintet Varsity's sophomore album Parallel Person will be released on April 27, 2018. The new record proclaims to take their music "to new depths that express themes of the uphill battle of isolation, popularity and artistic frustration". The two recent singles they have released thus far have certainly fulfilled this promise. "Krissy", the follow-up to lead single "Must Be Nice", serves as a dreamier and more introspective foil to the former's pointed social commentary.
A poignant bittersweetness colors the band's characteristically pleasant melodies, which serve to foreground the intimate words that lead vocalist and keyboardist Stephanie Smith would like to share with her titular friend: 'Krissy don’t believe it/ You can never be your own best friend/ Left me for a while/ So I settle on the back of your head.' Smith has perfected her ability to deliver fast-paced, staccato rhythm confessional outbursts by now, but she artfully slows down her vocal delivery when she sings the climactic final verses 'Hate to break the news to you/ You never can go home again.'
In the Hugh Donkin-directed music video, Smith wanders through an empty apartment with a recorder in hand. At one point, she can be seen lying in a bathtub filled with crumpled attempts to put her thoughts to paper. She revealed to that the song was inspired by an actual close friend named Krissy; their friendship has persevered despite years of living far apart from one another. Krissy may be out of sight, but she is never out of mind: 'Right now you're more like a photograph/ I wanna go back to the time we cried the whole drive home from the canyon'.
The song amounts to a touching tribute to the importance of a formative friendship and the difficulties of maintaining it throughout adulthood. The idea of applying something akin to the Bechdel test to song lyrics is fairly unknown, but this song makes a compelling argument for why this should not be the case.
