My mind is almost 19 / and I still feel angry / I’m searching for the reason

Girlpool’s 2015 album Before the World Was Big is uneasy, unabashedly afraid, and nothing short of perfection. Armed with just a bass, an electric guitar, and two pleading voices, Harmony Tividad and Avery Tucker created something stripped-down and completely honest. The 24-minute album perfectly captures the restlessness of growing up, leaving home, and being surrounded by constant change — the feeling of those first few weeks after everything familiar disappears. Now, ⅔ through my first year of college, the album feels like a time capsule of the first few weeks before and after moving in. Before the World Was Big is perfect for college first-years and anyone standing at the edge of a big transition.

Mom and Dad, I love you / Do I show it enough? / I just miss how it felt standing next to you / wearing matching dresses before the world was big

Childhood best friends Tividad and Tucker formed Girlpool when they were in high school and earned themselves a cult following shortly after. Their raw, nostalgic style fully crystallized in Before the World Was Big, and it’s this distilled honesty that makes the album so suited for first-years. Cherry Picking,” the album’s fifth track, was even featured on the Shithouse soundtrack (my all time favorite on-screen depiction of freshman year!). 

You grow up too / I wish I could see you / I hope you’re better

The transition to college already asks first-years to navigate adulthood and the perceived loss of our childhoods. Our generation, though, is forced to do so while living under a fascist regime amidst a climate crisis. The world feels huge, and thinking of finding your place in a world that’s crumbling feels like one, big, muffled scream into a pillow.

I was taught what to believe / Now i’m only certain / that no one is free

No album captures that feeling better than Before the World Was Big. The sound is dissonant and raw; the lyrics blunt and unfiltered. An un–Girlpool-trained ear might crave more stimulation, but it’s precisely the quietness of the music that creates its restlessness. You feel unsettled because they feel unsettled. With no drums or rhythm guitar to hide behind, Tividad and Tucker’s twinned, shouted voices are just as exposed as first-years so often feel in their first few weeks at college.

Is it pouring out my body? / My nervous aching / I like that you can see it

Before The World Was Big gets a lot right: missing old friendships, clawing at what used to be, not knowing who you are yet. The album captures the weird, conflicting feelings of moving out of one life and into another.