Something to Consume takes a grim view of possession. Die Spitz connect the title to romance, addiction and political power; in their account of Pop Punk Anthem, affection becomes a claim on another person. It is an uncomfortable subject for a love song, and a specific one.
The Austin quartet formed in 2022, though several friendships go back much further. Ava Schrobilgen and Eleanor Livingston met in preschool; Kate Halter joined their circle in middle school, and Chloe De St. Aubin came in when the band started. They exchange instruments and vocal duties. Their shared working arrangement gives the songs about possessiveness an interesting context: this band has chosen to distribute the jobs.
Will Yip produced the Third Man debut. In Out of Rage, Georgia Grant described dreamy passages in Sound to No-one and a darker folk turn in Go Get Dressed alongside the heavier songs. Livingston’s account of Throw Yourself to the Sword centres on overcoming insecurity. The record approaches control through both the urge to exercise it over somebody and the difficulty of recovering your own.
Livingston describes Throw Yourself to the Sword as a push against insecurity. Beside Pop Punk Anthem’s possessive narrator, it puts control under pressure from both sides: the desire to take it from somebody, and the need to recover your own.
Trading instruments does not make a band immune to the problems it writes about. It does mean that the writing, playing and singing are shared responsibilities here. Beside Pop Punk Anthem’s possessive narrator, that is a more appealing model of being close to other people: four friends making something that none of them owns outright.