In retrospect, the ’60s girl-group tradition always had more teeth than its juiciest hooks might imply. “The music often functioned as a Trojan horse, smuggling radical ideas into the mainstream years before second-wave feminism fully stormed the gates of inequality,” says Outer World’s Tracy Wilson. “Beneath the candy-colored walls of sound was something far more subversive: women articulating rage, vulnerability and desire with a candor that shattered social taboos.”
This transformative force is what Wilson was after on “Break That Chain.” With help from Janet Lundy (Shangri-Lords) and Erika Blatnik (Rikki Rakki), Wilson unleashes a communal declaration central to the group’s upcoming LP, Home (K). It’s all about shedding expectations, embracing imperfections and finding the nerve to become someone different.
“The collective force of female voices transformed pop songs into acts of emotional and cultural defiance,” says Wilson. “How punk is that?”
The former frontwoman for ’90s emo-core pioneer Dahlia Seed, Wilson devised Outer World’s more synth-focused psych/pop template at home in Richmond, Va., with partner Kenneth Close as she struggled with long COVID. Two years removed from Who Does The Music Love?, that core duo is now a sextet. The new LP’s notion of home is fluid, treating it as vehicle to explore the people, traditions and chosen families that shape identity over a lifetime. Musically, that means distant reference points often occupy the same space, from punk, ’60s pop and soundtrack-style strumming to contemporary classical music, Afrobeat and avant-garde experimentation. “Break That Chain” brings the disparity into particularly sharp focus in a way that feels not only urgent but current. After all, nostalgia can’t be the endgame in times of crisis.
“We find ourselves once again in a haunted cultural moment—one disturbingly reminiscent of the past, where the battle over who’s allowed to speak, dissent and be heard has returned with renewed ferocity,” says Wilson. “By breaking the chain of the past, a whole new self becomes possible. So go ahead, break that chain.”
We’re proud to premiere Outer World’s “Break That Chain.”
—Hobart Rowland
See Outer World live.
