READ: Meet ROLE MODEL, The Painfully Relatable Artist With A DIY Feel

ROLE MODEL is the kind of indie heartthrob that’d still be all-powerful even if he chose to cut off his glossy hair. With his newest EP, oh, how perfect, he’s proven his potential and is inviting us to join the bandwagon before it leaves town. 

oh, how perfect is filled with feverish indie angst and suburban sunset dreams that teens in Booksmart and Euphoria could both agree on. ROLE MODEL sticks to what he does best on this project. Every song is semi-poetic. Modeled in passion and relentless in form, his music sets a new precedent for bedroom pop as we approach 2020. 

He begins the album with “gucci chair.” The opening elongated notes that travel throughout the song feel like the quick and pounding footsteps of ROLE MODEL, himself, running. There’s gravity there, a palpable emotional weight as he painfully sings about the inevitable change that he can’t escape even if he runs fast enough. 

“that’s just how it goes” is a surefire fan favorite. It creates a most vivid mental image of a deeply relatable facet of youth, avoiding a certain someone. Backed by sublime instrumentation and production ROLE MODEL confesses, “Every flame has the same sad ending / And every spark’s gotta die / Every flame has the same sad ending / I stopped asking why / Cause that’s just how it goes.” This is the kind of song where when you listen to it, you find yourself thinking your ex-boyfriend did have a passing resemblance to a suburban Timothée Chalamet. Young, dreamy, and beautifully tormented. 

There’s just one feature on the project courtesy of New Zealand artist BENEE. On “Notice Me” she joins ROLE MODEL for a moody made for a music video track about the success of finally being noticed by the perfect person. It’s thought-provoking with its low tempo hum in spite of its celebratory lyrics. Perhaps, there’s an element of fear there? It takes so much for us to be seen, so when we are… the only thing more frightening than not being seen is being forgotten. 

The final track, “Thank You for Coming,” is a total standout that makes full use of ROLE MODEL’s quick wit and sharp tongue. A serene diss-track wrapped in reflective translucent paper, there’s no hiding what this song is really about. It’s delectably vicious. 

Listen to oh, how perfect below, and be sure not to miss ROLE MODEL on tour this fall: