Don’t You Dare Make Me Jaded, the debut album by Olive Klug, reminded me of an episode of the show Couples’ Therapy.
Hear me out: in the newest season, psychoanalyst Orna Guralnik seemed taken aback when a young queer couple aspiring toward polyamory laughed together about how, after years of overt misogyny in her childhood home, one counterpart realized she was gay while on shrooms. Guralnik struggled to understand how the pair could punctuate the revelation of deep traumas and insecurities with jokes and giggles.
But that mode of communication didn’t seem strange to me. Gen Z’s love language is holding lived realities of staggeringly unequal weights, especially in the oh-so-expansive vessel of the meme. On the first track off Don’t You Dare Make Me Jaded, serenading “emails to send, friendships to mend, generational cycles that I gotta end,” singer-songwriter Klug is a fluent speaker.
Olive Klug, 25, is probably known best for their beloved Tik Tok presence, plucking out covers and original tunes on an array of guitars with soaring, gorgeous vocals. Their “Our Song” gives Taylor Swift an energetic “y’allternative” treatment. Their finger-snapping, ethereal rendition of “Dancing in the Moonlight” keeps it as light and loose as the lyrics demand.
That charisma is in play on the 11-track folk record, which especially showcases witty and open-hearted writing. Klug takes on subject matter as classic as childhood crushes, a relationship built on power plays, and driving back and forth across the country — but with a self-reflective, earnest, and endearingly self-deprecating turn unique to their contemporary voice.
In the glittering extended metaphor of “Bath Bomb”: “What a waste, they’ll never get to taste / the sparkle / on the tip of your tongue.” From “Second Opinion,” a meditation on self-knowledge: “I stare at the clothes in my closet / They feel as foreign as stars.” The closing song, “Taking Up Space,” provides a welcome discordant buzz on an album mostly buoyed by inviting melodies: “If you’re not taking the hint, I’m telling you no / I’m not laughing at your goddamn jokes.”
The magic of seeing the world through young eyes, and looking back at a younger self, clearly inspires Klug — and in songs like “Coming of Age,” they poke fun at a sense of arrested development that probably resonates for many growing up in this particular decade. Two different songs invoke every middle schooler’s favorite party game, truth or dare (last year, Klug was one third of a sleepover-themed tour). In a lyric that hit home for this Greta Gerwig fan, they ask: “Why do I still relate to Lady Bird?”
The album title itself is a subtle twist on a lyric from “Casting Spells,” an ode to childlike wonder. “Some of the magic has faded,” they sing. “But don’t you dare call me jaded.” The change in verb is important. Throughout Don’t You Dare Make Me Jaded, and particularly on songs including “Taking Up Space,” “Cut the Ties,” and “Out of Line,” Klug both reckons with and claims the power of structure-disrupting, abundant models for life, love, and happiness afforded by queerness. In my favorite line from “Out of Line,” Klug’s voice zooms toward the stratosphere, the beat drops away, and they celebrate “getting unattached to linear tiiiiiiiiiime.”
In Klug’s words, “It’s a joy when you’ve got all these silly little lies / You get to erase.” They don’t want to be robbed of their contagious optimism. They pull us into the dream of aging with expansiveness intact. They feel uncertain, but can name with their whole chest the tired beliefs about life they hope never to hold.
We yearn these days for a soundtrack for apocalyptic times — especially those of us just getting started. Klug delivers, with a collection of songs at once comforting, whimsical, and honest about all that weighs on our hearts. Their message is both pressing and raw: Keep playing.
Olive Klug — Official, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Olive Klug’s upcoming tour dates:
AUGUST 31: LONDON, UK
SEPTEMBER 2: DUBLIN, IRELAND
SEPTEMBER 3: CORK, IRELAND
SEPTEMBER 10: SAN DIEGO, CA
SEPTEMBER 12: LOS ANGELES, CA
SEPTEMBER 15: SAN FRANCISCO, CA
SEPTEMBER 17: PORTLAND, OR
SEPTEMBER 18: VANCOUVER, CANADA
SEPTEMBER 20: SEATTLE, WA
SEPTEMBER 29- OCT 1: SISTERS FOLK FESTIVAL
OCTOBER 11: MINNEAPOLIS, MN
OCTOBER 12: CHICAGO, IL
OCTOBER 13: COLUMBUS, OH
OCTOBER 14: LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY
OCTOBER 17: BURLINGTON, VT
OCTOBER 18: BOSTON, MA
OCTOBER 19: BROOKLYN, NY
OCTOBER 20: PHILADELPHIA
OCTOBER 21: WASHINGTON DC
OCTOBER 25: NASHVILLE, TN
OCTOBER 26: ATLANTA, GA
OCTOBER 27: ASHEVILLE, NC
NOVEMBER 2: HOUSTON, TX
NOVEMBER 3: AUSTIN, TX
NOVEMBER 4: DALLAS, TX