The Political and the Transcendent: On EMA’s “Exile in the Outer Ring”

When it comes to punk rock, anniversaries are a weird thing. In 2007, the noise-punk band Gowns released their one and only full-length album, titled Red State. At that time, the concept of red states and blue states as a means for understanding American politics was at its apex. Much of what gave Red State its power then–and still does–came from singer/guitarist Erika M. Anderson’s refusal to make a distinction between politics and transcendence as equally valid methods of achieving catharsis. Here there were random bursts of noise, emphatically distorted guitars, and a conscious blend of musical beauty with the aesthetically discomfiting. Or, you know, punk rock.

“Cherylee,” which closed the album, unfolds in two distinct movements: one, in which the vocals are distorted and compressed, distinctly placed out of the center of the mix and positioned in a way that’s…off. Then, after a meticulously played piano takes the center, Anderson begins singing a set of lyrics that feel simultaneously anthemic, cathartic, contradictory, and disorienting:

“You’ve got to look it in the eyes and say that I don’t believe;

You’ve got to hold it underwater so you see where it bleeds;

You’ve got to stare into the mirror until you name this disease;