A nineties pop-punk gross-out aesthetic meets a folky, Waxahatchee-style sound in “Absolute Troll,” the apotheosis of Izzy True‘s Troll EP from Don Giovanni Records. The track, as wistful as it is disgusting, is an intimate and humorous confessional from Isabel Reidy and her band.
Reidy croons with confidence: “I’m a troll and that’s absolute.” The line, delivered as rotten fruit coagulates on cardboard in the song’s accompanying video, is so devastatingly personal that to listen is a sort of voyeurism. From the comfort of a chair, we watch Reidy lambast herself as she applies first make-up, then substances like flour and the sludge that dances in stop-motion when the camera cuts from the singer. “Absolute Troll” is as caught between delight and horror at the sight of this adult dress-up as the video’s final shots, which capture a smile that falters as surely as Elaine Robinson’s at the end of The Graduate. Perhaps the video qua artifact is itself a troll—the sort that lives on the internet. Promised a pop song, we willingly subject ourselves to, amongst many memorable images, trash doing its taxes.
Izzy True can warn us: “Don’t talk to me/don’t look at me.” We, transfixed, listen anyway.
Izzy True’s Troll EP is out now on Don Giovanni.
