Listen to “Teenage Situation” by Rodeola
All the action lies just below the surface in “Teenage Situation,” a highlight from Bloomington folk-rock band Rodeola’s latest album Arlene. Songwriter Kate Long stitches together abstract scenes from a relationship, leading finally to a moment of collapse: “I got drunk again/I can’t sleep again.” “It’s a teenage situation,” she concludes. All the while, Elephant Micah’s Joe O’Connell helps weave a gnarly web of electric guitar: One part sounds a little like Keith Richards’ interpretation of Joni Mitchell in “Waiting on a Friend,” while the other is a swampy, slide riff that helps bring Long’s imagery to life—an ill-fitting dress, the dirt on her hands as she digs up a time capsule in “love’s future wasteland.” The result is a dizzying and lo-fi depiction of complex, unruly emotion that leaves you feeling it all.