The title track to Mannequin Pussy’s Perfect is a rager that takes you on a journey through self-image

Philly’s Mannequin Pussy can achieve more in eighty-two seconds than many bands do over the course of an entire album. Case in point: the title track to their new EP Perfect, which landed on Spotify today.

It’s a classic MP rager, racing out the gate with gripping riffs, a slamming punk beat, and distorted vocals from Missy Dabice that wrestles with ideas of self-image and perception, and what we can do about them; a stomping breakdown lands at the halfway mark punctuated by layers of sardonic laughter, before the tempo kicks back up and sprints us to the finish line, begging to begin the journey again.

In a press release, Dabice shares that the song stems from consuming entirely too much social media while on pandemic lockdown:

“Last year, I found myself spending more time on my phone than I ever had in my life. Physically separate from other people, I spent hours of time watching other humans perform on my rectangle. I realized that through years of social media training, many of us have grown this deep desire to manicure our lives to look as perfect, as aspirational as possible. We want to put ourselves out there, share our lives, our stories, our day to day – and these images and videos all shout the same thing: ‘Please look at me, please tell me I’m so perfect.’ It’s simultaneously a declaration of our confidence but edged with the desperation that seeks validation from others.”

Listen below, watch a ridiculous music video (featuring Full Bush’s Adesola Ogunleye, Alex G’s John Heywood, and Corey Flood’s Ivy Grey-Klein) and preorder Perfect over at Bandcamp; it releases May 21st via Epitaph.