Sidney Gish - No Dogs Allowed

The Guardian 100

Self-released

Technically, No Dogs Allowed came out on 31 December 2017, a release date 21-year-old Boston student Sidney Gish has described as “mainly due to panic”. She always intends to make albums over the summer for an autumn release; a classic student, she finishes in a flap over Christmas and puts out whatever’s finished. You can’t tell – plus, No Dogs Allowed fantastically skewers the acts of casual self-sabotage and half-arsed grabs towards self-actualisation that befall every twentysomething.

Like Jens Lekman and Jonathan Richman, Gish is mordantly funny, her bleakly cute rhyming schemes souring her sweet indie-pop. The first verse to Mouth Log perfectly summarises a generation’s self-obsession yielding diminishing returns: “Just like a hate-watched series / I catalogue life dearly / Dreary how-tos on half-assed self-abuse.” She writes about kidding herself that she’s setting aside fecklessness and growing up, but also about how a rat looking at you wrong can undermine your (faked) confidence.

Pitchfork 77

This Boston singer-songwriter’s second proper album is a treasure trove of self-deprecating wit, melodic complexity, and endearingly anxious energy.