SINCE 2009, Greta Kline has released dozens of albums’ worth of songs on Bandcamp under the moniker Frankie Cosmos. Her airy voice resurrects the ’90s twee-punk of K Records bands like the Softies, but with lyrics that are marked by a profoundly conversational intimacy.
In 2014 she released her first official full-length, Zentropy, 10 tracks replete with late adolescent, armpit-soaking social anxiety. Here Kline describes herself as “the kind of girl buses splash with rain,” and sings about feeling out of place with bruised but effervescent sensibility. She coos love songs to her dog Joe Joe, before she has to put him to sleep in the album’s brutal dirge “Sad 2.” Throughout Zentropy, Kline seems lost, trying to navigate the overwhelming uncertainty of everything.
Last month brought the release of her follow-up, Next Thing, which includes both recently written material and re-recorded songs she’d released to Bandcamp as lo-fi demos over the past few years. Kline’s older songs are rejuvenated with buzzy, synth-heavy production and a backing band that’s made up of some of her best friends.