An offbeat union of the cerebral and the soulful, Liz Hogg’s Goodbye World Hello Something (Aagoo) may be lo-fi in spirit, but there’s nothing tossed-off about its origins. A classically trained guitarist living in Brooklyn, where she was born and raised, Hogg approached her sophomore release with the methodical mindset of an academic. She began with 283 song “kernels,” categorizing all of them before settling on 10. From there, she laid down a few strict parameters that encouraged spontaneity and limited revisions. The most significant rule by far: Each song had to be written in two sessions.
So despite all the prep work on the front end, the finished product doesn’t feel fussed-over—and it certainly isn’t predictable. Catchy as hell in numerous unexpected ways, Goodbye World Hello Something is indie pop in the least conventional sense.
Hogg takes us into her inner world.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Things I Said Before”
“When I was eight, I started picking out CDs I wanted to buy on my own. My first two choices were Millennium: ’80s New Wave Party and the Grass Roots’ All Time Greatest Hits, for no reason other than I liked the ’80s and Warren Entner on the cover. These were at a defunct CD shop on top of a more recently defunct good Mexican restaurant on Seventh Avenue and Garfield Place in my Park Slope hometown. Since that day, my parents always let me pick out one CD as a present for any family trip or outing that included a record shop, which I relished.
“Both CDs still get a lot of spins. And for this album, I wanted an intro song that had theatric qualities and an eclectic mix of sounds to pull in the listener. The animal sounds of the B-52s’ ‘Rock Lobster’ and the slick, well-orchestrated album intro of Pet Shop Boys’ ‘One More Chance’ inspired me directly, along with some of the less-direct rhythmic drive of the Supremes’ ‘Love Child,’ Enrique Iglesias’ ‘Love To See You Cry’ and the vocal a-cappella outro in the Strokes’ ‘Eternal Summer.’
“The song is about getting stuck in a loop. It’s in the angry love-song bucket. Having the same thoughts over and over again can sometimes be comforting, but it’s also bad for various reasons. You can find yourself sinking into the same grooves and thought patterns. It’s about getting stuck and saying the same things, but finally realizing there’s no end result, no final goal, no destination. Your only choice is to end the thoughts and the cycle. The narrator realizes this and succeeds in the end. That’s partly why the choruses start in minor but end in major.”
2) “Wonder When”
“The lyrics speak for themselves: The narrator wonders when they’ll get to experience requited and satisfactory love. (Longing love-song bucket.) Song inspirations that may or may not be apparent include the Cars’ ‘Shake It Up,’ the Strokes’ ‘The Adults Are Talking,’ Interpol’s ‘Obstacle 1’ and Crystal Castles. Also, the chromatic bridge between verse and bridge in Roy Orbison’s “Blue Angel,” one of my all-time favorite songs, inspired the chromatic ascent getting back into the verse as a way to switch between keys. ”
3) ‘On Paper”
“All that really matters is what’s on paper. It’s a concept I play with sometimes as a way to cope—at times, I believe in it fully. If it’s real in this world, it turns into paper. Love? Marriage record. Wealth? House. Just born? Birth certificate. Sure, some ephemera escapes—but it’s always best to get it down on paper if it really matters at all. What you see is what you get. (‘There is no “what should be,” there is only what is.’ —Lenny Bruce.)
“The song’s kernel came from an E-F oscillating bass line and an open Fadd9 chord guitar voicing I like. The softer orchestration and drum sounds were inspired by Atlas Sound’s ‘Parallax.’”
4) “Belly”
“This is more of an abstract love song touching on how people’s intellect interferes negatively with how they react to falling in love, contrasted with a simple physical magnetism to a specific body part—in this case, a stomach. (Flirty, fun love-song bucket.) Inspiration: the Only Ones’ ‘Another Girl, Another Planet,’ a perfect song from start to finish. I especially love the intro, and I tried to emulate it with some backward drum sounds and playing with the speed.”
5) “Master & Commander”
“This is in the heartbreak love-song bucket. It’s about a love that’s veered off course. In fact, the boat has gone completely missing … a ‘lost liner,’ so to speak. The narrator calls on the captain to bring it back to shore. She thinks he can still hear her and can do it—but really, he’s long gone. There’s no one in command of the ship, and everyone is probably dead.”
6) “Irreversible”
“This is in the angry/hurt love-song bucket. It’s about how fragile love is, and that it makes you sensitive to every action. Every hurt adds up and is irreversible. Time takes a fatal toll, unless you act with extreme care and delicacy. I wanted that somewhat austere thought to be tempered by an accessible, poppy, almost-positive musical frame. I tried to match the cadence and verse/chorus voice contrast in Meredith Brooks’ ‘Bitch.’ That song never gets old.”
7) “Curl”
“In the flirty/playful love-song bucket, again with a specific physical trait in mind: tightly wound black curls. The playfulness is set against some angst and frustration, plus an imaginary concept of curly hair being related to a curly brain. It’s an example of interlocking melodic guitar riffs that are a hallmark of the Strokes, which I was listening to a lot last year (e.g., ‘Why Are Sundays So Depressing’).”
8) “Round The Corner”
“In the happy/positive love-song bucket. It’s about how love, or whatever goal, can always be considered ‘round the corner.’ There’s no other way to go about life and no other attitude worth having about it.”
9) “Instructions For The Physical World”
“A philosophical song, pondering how to act in the physical world to achieve what’s desired in the spiritual and emotional worlds. The narrator doesn’t know how and needs instructions. But the instructions don’t exist because those worlds are in a constant battle. And perhaps that’s the point: They can’t fully coexist or meet in the middle. The beautiful and mysterious guitar parts on John Frusciante’s ‘Lever Pulled’ informed this one.”
10) “One Thread”
“This is a love song about a love that lasts your entire life—one unbreakable thread coursing its way from beginning to end. But you never know what the future will bring, so it’s just a goal that may or may not survive … an ideal. Song inspirations: Wings’ ‘Silly Love Songs,’ the Velvet Underground’s ‘Sweet Jane’ and Neil Young’s ‘You’re My Girl.’ Neil Young’s Are You Passionate? was on a constant loop when I was writing the album. The wise old man looking back on life’s pathos, and the amazing guitar riffs and solos on every song, really colored my frame of mind and the perspective I adopted by the time I got down to writing in 2024.”
See Liz Hogg live.
