A Girl, a Telescope and a Moon Kept Out of Reach: Cassie Bouchard’s Indie Pop Debut Cuts Deep –

Cassie Bouchard crossed a new frontier with her debut single, Telescope, as a sweeter, indie pop-inclined sonic love child of the grungier side of the Riot Grrrl movement. The independent female singer-songwriter uses music to process the very big feelings that 45 minutes of therapy per week could never possibly contain, and that raw need bleeds through the expressively quaint contours of her seminal release.

Bouchard carries the angst and ferocious sense of authenticity in her scarred but still whimsical vocals, while steady, raw and assured acoustic guitar chords twine with chamber strings. The result radiates the wisdom-drenched magnetism of acts in the vein of The Corrs, while keeping one scuffed boot planted in the lineage of women who turned frustration into melody sharp enough to draw blood.

Telescope was written after a rain-soaked trip to LA, when the fantasy of chasing a creative future began to feel mocked by the sky itself. By lyrically using the image of a girl looking through a telescope, with the moon kept cruelly beyond reach, Bouchard shaped a heart-wrenching exposition of desire, reality and lost potential.

It is a crushing reckoning with how tempered women become in a patriarchal, misogynist world where the glass ceiling cannot be smashed. Kathleen Hanna would be proud, Courtney Love would probably get insecure enough to start a catfight and every woman who has felt their dreams debased and diminished will find resonance here.

Telescope is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast