Last week, indie music artist Dodie Clark (@doddleoddle and @doddlevloggle on Youtube) started releasing daily vlogs in which she chatted to her audience while knitting a series of hanging letters. After a five month hiatus from her vlog channel, it was clear that there must be a reason for how frequently she was now popping up in my subscription box. And then, this came out…

Dodie’s releasing her first studio album, Build a Problem, on Mar. 5, 2021! For now, we can enjoy “Cool Girl,” the first single from the album, which made its debut on BBC Radio 1 yesterday and on major streaming services such as Youtube, Spotify and Apple Music.

In celebration of this exciting piece of news, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge why I love dodie and think you should go stream her new single now.

First of all, “Cool Girl” is wonderful. Dodie sings about trying to seem cool or nonchalant to someone she’s romantically interested in. But in typical Dodie fashion, she infuses this common aspect of contemporary romance with poetic lyrics, layered harmony and her signature head voice to create a hauntingly beautiful effect.

With lines like “I carry the time we don’t talk in a backpack, leave it on the side with the nights you didn’t call me back” and “How much of a tongue can I bite until we notice blood,” she manages to evoke visceral imagery that mirrors the intensity of our emotions when we’re young.

This is why I listen to dodie. She recognizes that even events that appear commonplace on the outside can spark a range of emotions.

I came across dodie back in 2017, around when she first released “When,” “Sick of Losing Soulmates” and “Party Tattoos” to her Youtube channel. I started watching her vlogs and related quite a lot to her open and honest discussions on her mental health, growing up and feeling things deeply. I strongly recall a video she made talking about her family house being sold and the deep emotions that event unlocked. I related quite a lot. I’ve always been someone who loves deeply and feels even small changes in life at the core of my being. But I’d never found a way to convey to people what this actually feels like.

Dodie’s music does that.

On her website, she states that Build a Problem “explores [her] hugest emotions; from the dark depths of bad brain to the giggly, performative nonchalance of feeling broken. Build A Problem is full of feeling, full of soaring strings, thick harmonies, honesty, vulnerability and therapy.”

The album will include revamped versions of some of dodie’s old songs, such as “When” and “Rainbow.” It will also include a whole host of new releases.

Preorder Build a Problem at dodie.co