Nandi Rose Plunkett
Landon Speers
"My mood is a pendulum/ I don't think you could handle it," sings Nandi Rose Plunkett, the synth songwriter known as Half Waif, early on "Severed Logic," her new EP's opening number. After, a second-hand-like ticking gives way to a swell of choppy, hollow-sounding beats. It's a gorgeous moment, the first of many on the six-song form/a, which drops this week on Cascine and is debuting below in full.
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Plunkett, who also plays with the hyper-literary alt-country band Pinegrove, has a gifted ear for loops that sound huge but still feel like they were cut by hand, and each of these tracks unfurls like a slow-motion power ballad. The textures are immersive, and the lyrics are self-reflective. "And you have been patient through every storm/ Forgive me my baby but what's one more?" she sings on "Cerulean," her doubled-up vocals glowing like a lit match in a dark room.
"I set out to record form/a on my own, wanting this EP to be a record of what my moods sound like, if I could pull them out of my insides and amplify them," Plunkett told The FADER in an email. "This collection of songs is a look into how those moods affect my relationships, how they take me on journeys through my past, how they transport me into meditations on life and death."
form/a is out February 24 on Cascine.
Half Waif tour dates:
2/21 - Noise Pop (Solo) - San Francisco, CA
2/25 - Indie Pop Prom @ Brooklyn Bazaar (Solo) - Brooklyn, NY
3/3 - SUNY Purchase (Solo) - Purchase, NY
3/11 - Savannah Stopover - Savannah, GA
3/12 - The Wilbury - Tallahassee, FL
3/13-17 - SXSW
3/19 - Not So Fun WKND @ Club Dada - Dallas, TX
3/22 - Mahall's - Lakewood, OH
3/23 - Mac's - Lansing, MI
3/24 - Beat Kitchen - Chicago, IL
3/25 - Double Happiness - Columbus, OH
3/26 - The Smiling Moose - Pittsburgh, PA
3/27 - The Smiling Buddha - Toronto, ON
3/28 - Vitrola - Montreal, QC
3/29 - Arts Riot - Burlington, VT
3/31 - Joe Squared - Baltimore, MDl
4/1 - Strange Matter - Richmond, VA
4/2 - King's - Raleigh, NC
4/3 - DC9 - Washington DC
4/5 - Middle East Upstairs - Boston, MA
4/6 - The Silent Barn - New York, NY
4/7 - Everybody Hits - Philadelphia, PA
