Early in my days of sketching, I tried to draw a clementine. It took me several days to complete. Instead of letting the drawing develop holistically I tackled a different section in detail each day. The result was a lopsided fruit with it’s left side ripe and right side filled with the markings of age. A lifespan captured and contained in one sphere.
The Best of Lily Konigsberg Right Now parallels my age-bending clementine. This collection chronicles Lily Konigsberg’s early work from her first three EPs along with previously unreleased songs. While the comp is clearly truncated by the divisions of her EPs, the various skins of her discography mesh with one another. The result is a portrait of an artist as a timeline — an ecosystem of songs breathing fresh life into one another.
The magic of the compilation is found in the ways her melodic techniques stretch and mutate over time. From Konigsberg’s first EP in 2017, the track “North Porsche” showcases her initial attempts at cleverly layering her vocals on top of one another. We tumble ahead to her 2018 EP and are met with her only completely acapella track, “Rock and Sin.” Konigsberg mastered her voice as an instrument, engulfing us further in the dreamscapes she began with her first release.
Through the fluidity of song structure, Konigsberg’s lyrical themes consistently project hues of confidence. This is notable on the single that ushered in the announcement of this compilation, “Owe Me.” Konigsberg dances around the sugar coated ways that she’s adored by a lover. The repeated line, “It’s like you own me something,” rolls around your mind like a pinball eternally stuck in its machine.
The second song “To Hold It,” embraces this same self-assurance as she croons, “Make me feel good today/ that’s what I want.” This lyric empitozmes album’s attitude: flowing with what feels right instead of relying on convention. Similar to Katie Dey’s most recent album, lyrics often function as the vessel through which Konigsberg allows her sounds to grow in.
Konigsberg flirts with various genres throughout her work. As most of the tracks clock under two minutes, the structure of the album feels both malleable and saturated like a colored pipe cleaner. While she peppers in notes of glam rock and opalescent pop, she seems most comfortable when she’s defying genres all together.
A few of the ambient closing tracks from her 2017 EP put the listener on a half-painted cloud. The promise of a fantasy is there, but it falls just short of transporting us into an alternate world; However, Konigsberg has been crafting her world for years now and, as this collection proves, each iteration sprouts from the last. She leaves us with a compilation of snapshots and an itch to continue hearing more.
Essential Tracks: “Owe Me,” “Talk to Me W. Birds” and “7 Smile”
Prerequisites: Katie Dey’s Mydata, Deerhoof’s Future Teenage Cave Artists and Long Beard’s Means to Me