Now Reading: The Empty Page pulled a male gaze blinder with their latest single, A Feminine Ending –
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The Empty Page pulled a male gaze blinder with their latest single, A Feminine Ending –
The Empty Page pulled a male gaze blinder with their latest single, A Feminine Ending –
For their latest anything but pedestrian release, A Feminine Ending, the Manchester-based trio, The Empty Page, initiated by doctoring the wooziness of Pavement around their unmistakably rhythmic alt-indie signature aesthetic before descending into proof hell hath no fury like a woman diminished based on how many trips she’s had around the sun.
After seeing the pre-release hype for A Feminine Ending, which follows hot on the heels of Death on Our Side and When We Gonna Run?, the languid tempo lands as a subversive curveball. Yet as you lean into the post-punk melancholy twisting through the angular guitar notes, harbingering basslines, and cymbals smashing like splintered glass, it becomes undeniable that the melodic medium serves as the perfect conduit of the lament on how divine femininity has an expiration date scribed on their faces by those who fetishise teen bodies.
The refrain of “one day, you start to disappear” couldn’t hit harder, cutting straight through anyone who understands that invisibility is far from a superpower in a world that dictates visibility equals worth. The spoken-word lash-out against hypersexualisation, the commodification of insecurity, and the relentless expectation placed on women to appease the male gaze lands with the same ferocity as the descent into no-wave instrumental carnage that the single was always secretly, seamlessly building to.
The Empty Page has spent over a decade sharpening their voice around women’s rights and cultural critique, and here, they carry feminist sonic fury into the fourth wave, honouring riot grrrl while delivering the punk-pinched artistic alchemics of Fontaines D.C. If there were any justice in the industry, a slice of Fontaines’ reverence would already be theirs.
A Feminine Ending is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast
Photo by Debbie Ellis
