EERA is back with a spellbinding new single, "I'll stop when I'm done," which serves as both a vulnerable confession and a determination mantra. Preceding her yet-to-be announced third album under the same name, due by September 26 via Test Card Recordings, Berlin-based Norwegian EERA, aka Anna Lena Bruland, takes us a few steps closer to her ever-evolving sound in the following cut. "I'll stop when I'm done" has an irresistible pull. A glossy hybrid of indie rock and dream pop, the song throbs with electronic undercurrents and a dusky glimmer.
EERA's breathy, almost whispered vocals usher you through a foggy soundscape of desire in "I'll stop when I'm done," where desire and determination meld into one being. "I'm just trying to find someone to love," she repeats like a ghost seeking connection through static. It's intimate, yet elusive. There's a heavy moodiness here, but one that's not without fire. The track is rooted in a simmering intensity that seems to mirror EERA's own unmitigated pursuit of love, truth, or even self-recovery, but it suggests nothing less than a restless chase. The song thrums with a sense of urgency, an appropriate reflection of the weight of the subject that inspired it, a quote by Marilyn Monroe: "I don't stop when I'm tired, I only stop when I'm done." EERA, however, channels the discomfort running beneath them, mapping out the internal monologue of a woman stuck between other people's expectations and her sense of self.
"I'll stop when I'm done" is a clinic in restraint and texture. PJ Harvey fans may appreciate EERA's nerve even in her most vulnerable moments, yet the underlying sheen smacks of Broadcast's psychedelic drift. It's music for the twilight hours, intimate, reflective, with a touch of the otherworldly. This track is further proof that EERA is building a world. A dreamy, disturbing, and totally absorbing one, indeed. If this song is any indication, the "I'll stop when I'm done" album is shaping up to be more than a mere collection, and it's going to act as a mirror to all those who have ever forged ahead not through might but through compulsion. And EERA is not stopping anytime soon.
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