{"id":484191,"date":"2019-04-02T11:02:57","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T17:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=816466"},"modified":"2019-04-02T11:02:57","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T17:02:57","slug":"song-you-need-to-know-laura-stevenson-dermatillomania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/song-you-need-to-know-laura-stevenson-dermatillomania\/","title":{"rendered":"Song You Need to KNow: Laura Stevenson, \u2018Dermatillomania\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The title of indie singer-songwriter Laura Stevenson\u2019s latest single is the name of a OCD-related mental illness that causes people to repeatedly pick at their own skin. But despite that ominous title, Stevenson\u2019s latest \u2014 a jangly pop-rocker that recalls Rabbit Fur Coat<\/em>-era Jenny Lewis \u2014 is about persisting through pain. When Stevenson sings, \u201cSo scar up where it counts\/No one can see me now,\u201d it sounds less like a confession than a triumph.<\/p>\n

On \u201cDermatillomania,\u201d the centerpiece of her new album The Big Freeze<\/em>, Stevenson tells much of her story through the song\u2019s breezy SoCal riff, which arrives like a declaration right after the song\u2019s closest approximation to a chorus: \u201cAnd then I see your face.\u201d The song also features some of the sharpest imagery the 34-year-old songwriter has ever written. Describing that same face later on, Stevenson sings, \u201cIts features are a skyline of a city I can\u2019t place.\u201d It\u2019s the type of line that could only come from a singer who\u2019s suffered through desolation and come out on other side. The song works mostly because Stevenson is careful never to forget her past scars. \u201cIt\u2019s not a sign of hope\/It\u2019s not a suit of armor,\u201d she offers. \u201cOnly a reminder.\u201d<\/p>\n