Laura Stevenson – “Dermatillomania”

Laura Stevenson – “Dermatillomania”

At the end of the week, Laura Stevenson is releasing her latest album, The Big Freeze. We’ve heard “Living Room, NY” and “Value Inn” from it so far, and today she’s sharing another one, “Dermatillomania.” It gets its title from the skin-picking disorder, and it sounds light and gorgeous despite being about the darkness hiding within, and the tendency towards self-harm in a search that’ll never resolve. “So scar up where it counts, no one can see me now,” Stevenson sings on it. “Dermatillomania, we laid our flags down/ And it’s not a sign of hope, it’s not a suit of armor, only a reminder.”

In our recent interview with Stevenson, she talked a little bit about the track:

I do have a lot of unchecked anger that has turned inward for a long time — and that makes me angry with myself. Not only am I angry at myself for that, but I also am because I’m still turning inward after realizing such. I’m not letting it out. It’s a constant motion of looking inward instead of actually working through that anger. The lyrics are intense and — not violent, but graphic. They’re grotesque in a way that makes me feel powerful. It felt empowering to write it, to check myself like that.

Listen below.

The Big Freeze is out 3/29 via Don Giovanni Records. Pre-order it here.

more from New Music