Doris Club
“My mother prepared me early on for her death,” says Lin, front woman of Doris Club, the Los Angeles (by way of Singapore) indie-pop solo act. “I was so afraid. I’d cry about it for months. She always told me that it was going to happen, but that it’s going to be okay. I get it, but I still tell her, ‘You’ve got to wake up and show up every day.’” This immediate sense of both doubt and wonder permeates her debut album, There’s Still Time. A hands-on producer herself, Doris Club fleshed out most of her songs between Singapore and Los Angeles with assists from producers Jordan Blackmon (Toro Y Moi, Leon Bridges), Josh Wei (Stray Kids, Rachel Platten), co-writing others with folk artist Field Medic and Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie). The latter, whom she was invited by to a writing retreat in Melbourne, co-wrote “The Sea, The Ocean,” an earworm of a retro-pop track that serves as a metaphor for a lover who can’t weather the ebbs and flows of a relationship. There’s Still Time is essentially a poetic collection of pensive, melodic pieces that lovingly orbit around every existential lesson she’s learned from her ailing mother (her name written into the band’s moniker) about love, uncertainty, and surrender. Divided into two separate releases, Side A is an uplifting exploration of emotions that sets one up for the second half, a more personal, sprawling, and philosophical account.