My Idea, the team-up of Lily Konigsberg and Nate Amos (Water From Your Eyes), debuted last year with the criminally underheard That’s My Idea EP. Now they’ll follow it up with a debut album called Cry Mfer, coming out on April 22 through Hardly Art.
They’ve shared the title track, which came after both had decided to get sober, with Konigsberg saying:
“In the moment I thought I was needing a big life change and shift, like I had been stuck in something, and I was right, I just went about it in a very wrong way… And now the thing that I’m needing, I’m getting, actually, which is through being sober and getting my life together. I was telling myself a lot of stuff through those lyrics that was subconscious. I thought I was talking to other people, but I was talking to myself.”
“Cry Mfer” unspools on a carefully crafted tapestry of guitar and violin (and maybe banjo), with a steady beat underneath bringing heft Konigsberg’s determined admissions of her pain and overcoming. She treats the situation like a break-up (“I will be the only one whose heart I break”), but whether it’s about alcohol or a person (or both) doesn’t matter; this is not about the other party, this is about Konigsberg discovering new stores of incentive and satisfaction. That energising feeling of self-discovery emanates from the song. The chorus is simple: “I was needing something”, and the way the duo harmonise that repeated statement together – even with “ouch” intermittently thrown in – makes for an inspiring and resonating message.
Watch the video for “Cry Mfer” below or listen to it on streaming platforms.
My Idea’s debut album Cry Mfer will be out on April 22 through Hardly Art (pre-order/save). They’ve announced these live dates:
2/4/22 – Brooklyn, NY @ TV Eye *
4/21/22 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
4/22/22 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Broadway ^
4/23/22 – West Hartford, CT @ University of Hartford
* w/ Andrew Savage of Parquet Courts
^ CRY MFER Record Release Show
You can find the project on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
