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Close It Quietly

by Frankie Cosmos

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joeyroxx
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joeyroxx frankie cosmos is like waking up on an east coast beach Favorite track: Moonsea.
aerin
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aerin My god I'm in love with this album. Every time I go to listen to one song, I inevitably end up listening to the whole thing over again. This knows how to tug right at my nostalgia -- both the melancholy and the joy. Favorite track: A Joke.
Andrew C
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Andrew C Great fun. This album gets me hyped and gives all the feels Favorite track: So Blue.
nathanswagmaster
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nathanswagmaster THE HYPE TRAIN HAS NO BRAKES

CHOOO CHOOOOOO
dominique saldana
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dominique saldana just so excited
“when i reflect, i find there is other than me”
love u guys Favorite track: Windows.
sinisazoran
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sinisazoran I've never fallen in love with a studio album so quick. Please never stop (until you are done)
1000 YEARS OF FRANKLIN🐩 Favorite track: Actin' Weird.
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1.
Moonsea 02:02
The world is crumbling and I don't have much to say We say goodbye "goodbye" Go slow like the train I hope you know you're not nothing We've got everything to gain And I know it's not the same I'm not in the world that way At least that's what I'm trying It's just pancakes on a stove It's rock and roll And roll Cause I'm the moon and you are the sea You always seem sad underneath me All fires go out later, some burn a bit greater, but it's all just fire on my ass telling me love myself better
2.
Cosmic Shop 01:53
Your windows glisten yellow in the sunset I got teary looking at the sky again Rivers fill the sewers underneath you I wanna be beneath you too Each leaf blowing never even knowing what it was like to be stuck onto a tree Two white doggies do not know each other Both of them are holding something pink inside them You're inching up at a red light I look straight into your 6 eyes You can break me up but you can't keep me aside Like a leaf you shred in two has gotta keep on living through years to come When I need to be made to feel small, and I call you but you're not picking up, I just go to the cosmic shop
3.
41st 02:06 video
Does anyone wanna hear the 40 songs I wrote this year? Had a dream based on reality You were being really mean to me For what it's worth I wish I was the earth Every time I'm remembering what you were I close my eyes every time and I wonder why (Why? Why? Why? Why?) I look at the branches and hold a mirror up They're looking at me and say "you don't have a comb, do ya?" I'm trying to sit still between the chatter Holding me together is that I'll be seeing you after Glimmering lips give you away You've got nothing to say Try to recall if it ever felt like this Turning around to this stranger that I'm with I only want something comforting
4.
So Blue 02:20
I am everyone you'll never meet I am every book you'll never read I am the picture that didn't come out I am the story stuck inside of your mouth The sky is so blue, it makes everything else blue The trucks, the stones, the view I am so blue, I make everyone else blue My friends, my enemies, you I am so blue, I make everyone else blue My friends, my enemies, you
5.
A Joke 02:12
(1, 2) It's just a joke I wasn't trying to tell What the hell? I do not know what I am for I wasn't really keeping score It wasn't really a game Flowers don't grow in an organized way Why should I? A bowl of sugar and some flower stems Their spikes growing I wanted to come from a painting An abstraction Calling up Time and waiting on the line Til I finally say "I quit, baby" It's just a joke I wasn't trying to tell What the hell? I still don't know what I am for I wasn't really keeping score It wasn't really a game Flowers don't grow in an organized way Why should I?
6.
I see now that it was wrong, so wrong, to try to hold on to a falling tree: One that wouldn't even look at me, Whose sticks were all arranged so evenly, Who wasn't holding arms out lovingly Humiliate your family Just 'cause you wanna stand with me I think your ring means more than our thing The day after I decide to end it all I go for a walk and it feels like everything Is planted to tell me not to do it Oh how I wish we never met Oh baby I was all alone in it Now I see that I was always me underneath everything I ever tried to be Now i see that there is always you turning up in everything I do
7.
Actin' Weird 01:10
My body's sending out some shit And I cannot keep track of it I remember feeling like aliens We were cotton balls dipped in sand Isn't it weird how we have grown so far apart? Now I don't know you at all, you're just a name on my g-chat bar Joejoe you were in my dream, alive and facing away from me I don't know how to feel, everybody's acting weird Actin' weird actin' weird actin' weird actin' weird
8.
Windows 02:47 video
I still like looking out windows I know how to forgive those sceneries for surrounding me but you did it differently I don't know how with you though I'd really like to I'm waiting for you to become something I heard somewhere once I want guidance, direction even for just a second Spit out diamonds, cough up rubies Call me when you can see through me Spit out diamonds, cough up rubies Call me when you can see through me Do I have regrets? Certainly Mostly the fantasy I let it encircle me But you did it differently Do I bounce? I bounce back Aimless maybe but a worthy task The slow leak, slow drain Or: never notice you're boiling But the fill up is quick You just have to wait for it Spit out diamonds, cough up rubies Call me when you can see through me Spit out diamonds, cough up rubies Call me when you can see through me
9.
Never Would 01:47
It'd make a good song to miss you But I really don't at all If you were any good I'd sing "Oh babyyyy why'd you have to goooo" It'd make a good song to go see you I'd say "don't worry about him, we're just friends, it doesn't mean nothin" and he'd say "oh baby please don't go, stay here with me and hang out" But it's not a song (But it's not a song) And I never would
10.
Way up high and fucked Not violent enough to self-destruct But I wanna stop being in this life Late at night we dive into the light Your eyes swing shut like an orange peel but It's just gravity making me tired, weighing me
11.
Wannago 03:18 video
the cloud so big and dark foams up around my heart the pointed arms of trees saying "this is where the cloud is" road wet with yellow lines and shadows of cars & planes it's been forever but it's whatever I'm here for you and I would never forget you forget you you are the best but your will is less strong than the rest so you just rest we go together like cymbal and snare held back and thrust together again it's miraculous that humans are here we built ourselves or god is real and we ended up with eyes and ears and dreams and science and love and fears i'm crying here in the backseat our home is far away, empty and you love me and you love me and love is a miracle cause life's a dream Prada red and Matisse blue far yet, close together like me and you i'm almost there (I'm almost there) i'm almost there (I wanna go back) i wanna go back (I'm almost there) i want to go back (I wanna go back) where can you put yourself that makes sense (I'm almost there) i'm worried that i might forget (I wanna go back) i'm almost there (I'm almost there) i'm almost there (I wanna go back) i wanna go back (I'm almost there) i want to go back (I wanna go back) if i had a choice i'd listen to your voice all day while I'm gone telescope straight to your song
12.
I'm It 02:00
I'm following it even though it is not what I expected I don't know if it's me or I'm it but I cannot regret it When it's all over I don't When it's all over I don't know what When it's all over I don't know what happened to me The air hangs in the air I don't care if you don't care I care that I care When it's all over I don't When it's all over I don't know what When it's all over I don't know what happened to me
13.
You're the trunk of a tree Silent, filled with clarity I am a point in time Moving slow along a line You hit just below the note Oh to be a fly on the wall of your throat God I'd love to climb inside your brain Remember what it's like to be less vain I'd close your eyes and see anything Even just some memory
14.
how can i still feel so unstrong when so much more could have been wrong? i still hate every moment where people i thought i knew laughed in my face like there was nothing they could do the news is excruciating how'd the world get so devastating? I'm just fucking glad for my bubble despite how often it is penetrated by evil i remember when i figured out everything was the same walking around seeing building after building but all those things you hear about They only happen to other people it doesn't happen to me not me wouldn't be caught dead in last season's textures our heads are filled up staying true to the pressure
15.
We never talked about a thing, never went through it Even though I knew you weren't feeling true to me The train crawls like our phone calls I let it go on far too long I would've let it go on forever In the window my reflection will show It has grown since you have known it Right after this I might ask for it Babe you know I'd climb under your fence for 25 cents I know it's bad but you know I would 15 dogs on a wall, 10 seltzers deep in it all Check the eggs that none are cracked I know you can remember that
16.
UFO 01:44
I wish I could forgive myself for letting it happen As fast as you forgave yourself for your actions Selfish as you are cannot be undone You wouldn't let me let myself become a person Diamond in your throat Is it in my dreams? Maybe see you there Facing away from me I'm lying next to you in the strong grass The car pushes by fast and the clouds are just gas Everything I know Picked up by a UFO maybe you too Do I know you? I want it so bad that I hate it so much Are you for or against? Well maybe I'm both Maybe I'm both Maybe I'm both
17.
Marbles 02:11
I might go to the party at the house tonight But maybe I won't Maybe I won't Burn the coffee One for taste Gotta watch it go to waste You wanna be loved (you wanna be loved?) Do you wanna be seen (do you wanna be seen?) You wanna be hated you wanna be mean We both know it's all the same Doesn't matter which way you swing Sometimes I wanna extend, sometimes the pain is so immense it's churning me out But then you turn around I'm a lover I give light I was never made to fight Oh darling I wanna give you all my marbles You're a perfect planet I want to inhabit
18.
Did You Find 01:15
You're in the corner of my eye Can you tell I'm wondering why does it feel like I have known you my whole life? Did you find Did you find that in this one we are meant to keep passing each other by?
19.
A Hit 01:27
Are you smiling at me or you baring your teeth? I'll always have a tender feeling towards the me that loved the you I wouldn't recognize you from behind even if the front of you were my palm Lean over, fake tender Like I feel like a man in my dreams Like I like how I look with you in my arms, or I like how you look in my arms, or I like to look at my arms, or Look at me, my arms are yours I wanna be all arms I wanna be all yours There's a diamond in your throat If you leave your light on it was always up to me Every song is a hit If you pretend to understand it
20.
It's fine but I don't mind when it's not fine I go far though I don't know where to go with great purpose I get nervous Nervous My heart is as sharp as a sonnet I could crack an egg right on it Honest Every time I should've said so gets stuck inside of this "no" Nooooo
21.
I'm back on my crying Every day I'm dying to let some water out my body And into the world around me You didn't look at me at all And i just stared at the wall The whole time I'm like a dandelion Just a little bit of breath blows me apart Just standing here seems like a good start for me to cry 'cause I'm back on my crying Every day I'm dying to let some water out my body And into the world around me It never stops, this swirling But honey I will die trying I will die crying I will cry dying I will try crying I will cry trying But see you there through a veil of tears Watch you through a wash It never stops, this swirling....

about

Close It Quietly is a continual reframing of the known. It’s like giving yourself a haircut or rearranging your room. You know your hair. You know your room. Here’s the same hair, the same room, seen again as something new. Close It Quietly takes the trademark Frankie Cosmos micro-universe and upends it, spilling outwards into a swirl of referentiality that’s a marked departure from earlier releases, imagining and reimagining motifs and sounds throughout the album. FC’s fourth studio release is a manifestation of the band’s collaborative spirit: Greta Kline and longtime bandmates Lauren Martin (synth), Luke Pyenson (drums), and Alex Bailey (bass) luxuriated in studio time with Gabe Wax, who engineered and co-produced the record with the band.

Recording close to home— at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios— grounded the band, and their process was enriched by working closely with Wax, whose intuition and attention to detail made the familiar unfamiliar and allowed the band to reshape their own contexts. On opener “Moonsea,” an unaccompanied Greta begins, “The world is crumbling and I don’t have much to say.” Take that as a wink and a metonym for the whole album, as her signature vocals are joined by Alex’s ascending bassline and Lauren’s eddying synths, invoking a loungey take on Broadcast or Stereolab’s space-disco experimental pop. There’s much more than “not much” to say here, and it's augmented and expanded by experimentation with synth patches, textures, and other recording nuances courtesy of Wax.

As the lineup has solidified into the most permanent expression of full-band Frankie Cosmos, the bandmates have felt more comfortable deviating from their default instruments and contributing bigger-picture ideas to continue pushing the sound forward. The synergy of its creation is clear upon listening: the multiple hands dipping and re-dipping into each song form a multifaceted whole. The band’s closeness and aesthetic consistency freed its members to take more musically-formal risks, notes Luke: "Everything will sound like Frankie Cosmos because Greta has such a distinct voice (literally and figuratively). We have so much latitude to experiment with the instrumental music, and this time around we really took advantage of that."

The album forms its own vortex of reinvention that’s embodied through both the tracks themselves and the recording and arranging processes. “A Joke” curls in on itself, in word and in deed, a series of undercuts defining negative space: “It’s just a joke I wasn’t trying to tell;” “It wasn’t really a game;” “I do not know what I am for/I wasn’t really keeping score.” Inverting technology’s human mimicry, Luke impersonates a drum machine until the song’s end. “A Joke’s” tricks scratch at something bigger, a small song embodying the laughability of attempting to neatly organize or adhere to any particular role.

“Rings of a Tree” frees itself from its original context: released earlier this year on Greta’s solo piano album Haunted Items, she didn’t initially anticipate a major deviation; then, Luke says, “Lauren and I had the same arrangement idea without talking about it. Like, ‘let’s make this song funky. Let’s channel Orange Juice.’ We texted Greta and Alex before practice and Alex came in with a new guitar part that perfectly captured what Lauren and I heard in our heads.”

“I’m just fucking glad for my bubble/despite how often it is penetrated by evil” Greta sings on “Last Season’s Textures,” taking to task the accusation that young people cloister themselves in complacency: she’s quick to point to, thank, and feel suspicious of that sphere all at once. The song explores the feeling of safety in her realm; reasonable despair re: reality (“the news is excruciating”); and a quick admission that darkness isn’t something a liberal-minded social network can block out. Kline notes how the song is “partly about misogyny and internalized misogyny--moments where I've felt betrayed by what is meant to be a safe space.”

Without losing any intimacy of prior albums, Close it Quietly is different, is outer. The album functions as a benign doppelganger, a shadow self of past releases; where other Frankie Cosmos records shine brightest looking inward, Close it Quietly refracts the self into the world, and vice versa, miraculously echoing Thoreau’s assertion that “when I reflect, I find that there is other than me.”

Reflection--and refraction--isn’t tidy. “Flowers don’t grow/in an organized way/why should I?” Greta sings on “A Joke.” Growth isn’t linear. Change happens in circles. While recording the album, Alex says, “I closed my eyes a lot.” Stand in the sun, listen to Close it Quietly, and do the same.

-Molly Schaeffer

credits

released September 6, 2019

2019 Sub Pop Records

all songs written by Greta Kline
arranged & performed by Frankie Cosmos:
Greta Kline, Alex Bailey, Lauren Martin, Luke Pyenson
Produced by Gabe Wax, Greta Kline, Alex Bailey, Lauren Martin, & Luke Pyenson at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn NY, February 2019
Assistant Engineer Nate Mendelsohn
Dominic Coles played modular synth on Moonsea & Never Would
Nate Mendelsohn played saxophone on Even Though I Knew
Kevin on piano, Phoebe on harmonies on With Great Purpose
Mixed by Gabe Wax
Mastered by Josh Bonati
Album art by Lauren Martin & Eliza Doyle
Special thank you to everyone who made this happen, our families, friends, and everyone at Sub Pop <3

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Frankie Cosmos New York, New York

Booking: john@groundcontroltouring.com

UK / EUROPE booking: clemence@atc- live.com

US Press:
press@subpop.com

UK Press:
liv@onebeatdigital.com

sync: jessyr@subpop.com

publishing:
gareths@subpop.com

7 minutes in hell

"ingrid is over"

pot calling the kettle dank
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