BLONDSHELL’s ‘Event Of A Fire’ Burns With Silent Suffering

Sabrina Teitelbaum, known by her stage name BLONDSHELL, dropped her final single ‘Event Of A Fire’ just days ahead of her anticipated sophomore album ‘If You Asked For A Picture’. Giving an overview into the themes to come, it explores burnout, growing up, and body image.

The idea for the song blossomed when the artist was on tour, and a fire broke out at her hotel at 4 am. Sabrina was so tired and bewildered in the moment that she went to take the elevator. 

As she delves into feeling burnt out, the line “The sign said don’t forget to always take the stairs in the event of a fire”, sums up the real story but also metaphorically speaks about the hardships in life that sometimes you have to get out of. 

‘Event Of A Fire’ is about being drained from simply living, it’s nostalgia driven and focuses on growing up. Sabrina opens up about her difficult times as a teenager, singing “Like I’m sixteen / part of me really left her she was never found / Part of me still sits at home in a panic over fifteen pounds”. She shows how much she’s changed since then but also how some issues never really leave you, causing her to be depleted because they linger. 

The track builds from a delicate guitar and aching vocal into a full throttle roar towards the end, where the exhaustion and urgency in her voice is immense. It feels as though she’s running out of breath in the bridge and outro before finally slowing it down for “Pin me down with styrofoam / Cut out one single mouth hole / for air, for air, for air” and so, the track goes back to soft strums of a guitar.

Starring Ghjuvanna Benedetti, the music video brings Sabrina’s songwriting to life as it follows a swim team where Benedetti seems detached from the situation and the other girls. It captures her going through an internal struggle that’s been affecting her physical performance, which shows her quiet perseverance. Through subtle visuals, director Emile Moutaud has captured the essence of how the smallest things can be overlooked by some but cause turmoil for others. By the end, she is able to dive into the pool — symbolising the process of overcoming burnout with time. 

As a whole, the song is a melancholic emotional collapse straight from the heart, with each lyric having a raw and exposed feeling. 

Emma Turner

@ems.lens3

Image: Daniel Topete

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