Have you ever felt alone in a crowded room or just knew that you were going to do something to embarrass yourself in front of a group of people? Leeds-born multi-instrumentalist Francesca Pidgeon understands that feeling all too well. Under the guise of Dilettante (and moonlighting member of BC Camplight), she makes music for awkward encounters and self-conscious impulses, but there is a dawning awareness that we don’t all have to stay within the lines and that a unique perspective isn’t a failing. Her upcoming album, Life of the Party, examines these uncomfortable situations and the pressures felt when forced to conform to traditional social expectations.
Today she’s shared the title track, a fuzzed-out, breezy pop echo that manages to balance various musical densities within its danceable architecture. Bursts of sax meld with synth pop curlicues and whirling guitar distortion to create a head spinning variety of contours and textures. Her voice is filed with a nervous energy, bounding from one word to the next, a lyrical evasiveness evident in each syllable.
“I feel like I’ve been trying to write this song for over a decade,” explains Pidgeon, “the idea of it is something that I’ve literally been trying to get right in a song since I started writing about 15 years ago. I’ve always felt sort of ill at ease around other people and especially at big social gatherings, I always have this idea of how they’re going to go and they never really live up to that for me because I’m just not great at all that stuff. Obviously it’s a sarcastic chorus, I am certainly not the Life of the Party.“
Listen below.
Life of the Party is due out Jan 24 via Launchpad+ / EMI North. You can pre-order the album here. Follow her on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
