MusicFirst LookShocking Pinks – What's Up With That GirlExclusive: A post-traumatic nightclub track from the dream-pop miserablist and DFA graduateShareLink copied ✔️December 11, 2013MusicFirst LookTextJazz Monroe Six years ago, Shocking Pinks (aka Nick Harte) released his last album, a hermetic bedroom curio sealed in DFA’s quarters. If his beseeching lyrics and despondent tone suggested total internal collapse, his new Stars & Letters triple-LP Guilt Mirrors (out Feb 18), recorded in his Christchurch studio around the city’s 2011 earthquakes, confronts the external reality. Harte faced his dark period like most of us do, albeit it rather more literally: by shutting in and painting the windows black. To capitalise he scorched through sleepless five-day recording sessions, but "What’s Up With that Girl" feels like a nervous step into some post-traumatic nightclub, wearing its tetchy hook like alien skin. It features singer Ashlin Raymond, responsible for Tiger Tones’ similarly chromatic electro, and her presence nourishes the music, projecting Harte’s spiritual catatonia outwards. When the question repeats forlornly – “what’s up with that girl?” – you suspect whatever has befallen her is so catastrophic that no answer is conceivable. Expand your creative community and connect with 15,000 creatives from around the world.READ MOREInside Erika de Casier’s shimmering R&B universe ‘Rap saved my life’: A hazy conversation with MIKE and Earl Sweatshirt InstagramIntroducing Instagram’s 2025 Rings winners7 essential albums by the SoulquariansIs AI really the future of music?VanmoofWhat went down at Dazed and VanMoof’s joyride around Berlinplaybody: The club night bringing connection back to the dancefloorAn interview with IC3PEAK, the band Putin couldn’t silenceFrost Children answer the dA-Zed quizThe 5 best features from PinkPantheress’ new remix albumMoses Ideka is making pagan synth-folk from the heart of south LondonBehind-the-scenes at Oklou and FKA twigs’ new video shoot