Over the course of its first nine tracks, Mal Blum’s latest record The Villain crafts a complex portrait of humanity that playfully assigns and adopts its title’s role to the all-too-common villainry encountered in everyday life—through romantic relationships and beyond—as well as addressing the songwriter’s own position in such a role through the perspective of others. Yet it isn’t until the tenth and penultimate track for which the record takes its title that Blum takes an earnest look at themself as the villain, questioning their own guilt as well as the implication that there can only be one party at fault in any given disagreement. The track is only made more striking by its stripping down to vocals and acoustic guitar before minimal accompaniment kicks in a minute or so into the track.
“I had all but finished the album, and somebody close to me gave me invaluable feedback—they said that I’d explored many aspects of villainy throughout the record, but I hadn’t taken a full song to earnestly turn the spotlight back on myself, to put my sword down, so to speak, and consider my own faults,” Blum shares. “I happened to have had a co-write that week with an artist named Slowleaves/Grant Davidson and we wrote this. I think it’s an important turn of the album—the title of the album ‘The Villain’ implies that there is one villain. It can even be interpreted as a question, and so it is only fair to turn the question inwards. I think the reveal here is that there is no one villain, obviously.”
Arriving this Friday via Get Better Records, The Villain also features production from Jessica Boudreaux (formerly of Summer Cannibals) and contributions from Speedy Ortiz’s Audrey Zee Whitesides and Ricardo Lagomasino from Lucy Dacus’ band. Check out the new track below, and pre-order the record here.
