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Birthday Song

Frankie Cosmos

2014

Birthday Song

Release Date:  2014

By Pitchfork

Reviewed February 12, 2014

Read Paul Thompson’s review of the track.

It’s Greta Kline’s birthday, and she’s not about to spend it counting candles. “Just because I am a certain age,” Kline matter-of-factly sings at the top of “Birthday Song,” “Doesn’t mean that I am any older than I was yesterday.” At just 68 seconds, “Birthday”—our second taste of Zentropy, the first studio LP from Kline’s prolific-ain’t-the-half-of-it Frankie Cosmos project—never seems to be in any particular hurry to get where it's going. Atop a subtly shifting tempo, Kline ambles her way around town, lost in thought: “I think/How repulsive to you it must be when I refuse to do the things you want me to.” Pristine but frazzled, “Birthday Song” manages to cram a whole lot of song—and a year’s worth of worry—into just a few short seconds. But the inexorable march of time seems like the last thing Kline oughta be sweating when she's getting this much out of a minute and change.

7:00 PM · Feb 12, 2014