“Wash It Away,” lead track from the provocatively titled Fuck With Sad Girls, Bonnie Whitmore’s third effort, starts low. Just her on bass. What builds from there becomes a full-fledged anthem with gospel chorus and waves of orchestral strings that match the song’s oceanic theme. Even so, the pop-inflected title track will likely get the most attention. (There’s that four letter word after all.) Both serve as jumping-off points for Whitmore’s desire to have a conversation on human relationships and the need for empathy in an age where it’s sorely missing. She follows the pair with Pretenders-like rocker “Cinderella,” dismissing life as a fairy tale as Jon Dee Graham on lap steel urges her emotions to even higher peaks. As a whole, Fuck With Sad Girls showcases Bonnie Whitmore at the top of her abilities as a songwriter, using a broad palette of styles to get her social commentary across, and doing it with a superior amount of finesse.
This article appears in October 21 • 2016.