“Feel the Same”

On Bully’s debut LP Feels Like, singer and guitarist Alicia Bognanno did her best to scream her way out of the ennui clogging up her free time. “I’ve been trying to hide from my mind,” she sang on breakout single “Trying,” making the most painful parts of boredom sound almost fun. Their new single “Feel The Same,” the first off their forthcoming Sub Pop debut Losing, also plumbs an uncomfortably static state of mind. But this time Bognanno doesn’t try to lighten that feeling—instead, she intensifies it.

“Feel The Same” opens with a claustrophobic two-chord chug reminiscent of the sour spaces Built to Spill occupied at their most angsty. “Cut my hair, I feel the same/Masturbate, I feel the same/Hope you’re OK” Bognanno howls before launching into a refrain built around that one word: “Same/Same/Same.” Her vocal melody swirls around in circles while the guitars refuse to move forward, reflecting how stubborn this headspace is. Whatever relief she’s able to secure by the time the lead guitar chirps through the low end isn’t enough to free her from how trapped she feels. The song even ends where it started, with those prickly, alternating chords, and Bognanno’s mood mired in anxiety with no exit in sight.