by David Wilikofsky
begbug emerged out the bedroom pop scene nearly a decade ago. The mastermind behind the moniker, Dylan Gamez Citron, recently wrote a lengthy article about the genre which served as both a retrospective of and eulogy for it. One of the most interesting points they make is that bedroom pop was less a genre and more an ethos. Perhaps there are some elements that are staples (tape hiss, cheap keyboards, a fondness for lo-fidelity recording methods), but more than anything it was about the emotions it could engender in the listener; Citron refers to it as “a nostalgia so crushing, I could feel my heart in my own guts.” pack your bags the sun is growing, their latest album, may not be a bedroom pop record in the literal sense (it was recorded in a studio with a full band), but even this fully fleshed out, high fidelity version of the project still carries the spirit of the genre.
Perhaps this is most evident in Citron’s lyrics. They’re dense, filled with confessional moments, dream-like sequences and evocative imagery. They often don’t cohere into any sort of recognizable narrative, but they are always calibrated to make an emotional impact. Take “Halo On The Interstate”; it’s not really clear to me exactly what the song is about, but there’s a deep sense of melancholy a lyric like “I wanna drive till I’ve got no heart left / I sold my car, bought a surfboard and swam off until I couldn’t”. There are motifs that recur, but they’re often deployed to elicit different emotional responses. In one song driving is framed as a means of escape; in another, volunteering to drive is a sign of intimacy. I keep circling back to Citron’s phrase “crushing nostalgia” because it describes what bedbug achieves here better than I can. These are songs that make you feel the butterflies of a new crush, the ache of loss, euphoric highs and deep depression; they capture something ineffable about living life.
bedbug’s early music (and bedroom pop in general) is affecting in part because of the intimacy baked into its aesthetic. I would not call pack your bags the sun is growing intimate in the same sense. It’s the product of a full band recorded in a professional studio, not a transmission straight for the heart of a solo artist. It sounds crisp and clean without a hint of tape hiss. But despite the professional veneer, in the end it has a similar impact albeit it for a different reason. Rather than feeling like a heart to heart conversation, here bedbug capture the enormity of emotions; these are songs that sweep you up in them rather than whisper into your ear. Yes, this does not sound like bedroom pop in any traditional sense, but it’s still capable of making your feel your heart in your guts.