If someone has been in on the social media scene for quite some time, they would know of the cultural influence that Tumblr-born aesthetics has brought upon to today’s generation. With the advent of such a platform came the dark horse Nicole Dollanganger, who tactfully used this micro-blogging site to her musical advantage. In the final weeks of 2012, she cranked out an independently-released album of moth-infested lullabies entitled Flowers of Flesh and Blood.
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Along with many others, I had first heard of Dollanganger via Grimes’ tour lineup in the fall of 2015. Also, if you are a fan of the AMC horror-drama The Walking Dead, you would have heard her single, “Chapel”, featured in the soundtrack of the show. With musical themes such as death, love, violence, and sex, Dollanganger’s candy-coated voice allows said qualities to coexist in a way that would be unrealistic if done by any other artist. Flowers is a prime example of this. Dollanganger’s music is very image-based, and if you saw her bedroom/recording hub, you would understand immediately how this conclusion came to pass.
Flowers of Flesh and Blood, the title deriving from a Japanese horror short film, takes the minimalistic approach to instrumental composition to allow for copious amounts of room for bone-chilling lyrics sung by a voice dripping of warm milk and honey. She sings about being hospitalized, dead lovers, and murderous young couples in the fifties.
As morbid as her nightmarish words may come across as, they interlock perfectly with her angelic vocals. It would seem so very wrong if they existed in a combination of any other kind. A song like “Cement”, the longest track on this release, would not be as effective if it was not executed in this horrific, hazy, soft and gentle manner that is Nicole Dollanganger’s signature method of music-making.
Since Flowers of Flesh and Blood’s initial release, Dollanganger has come out with four more LP’s, and a repertoire of EP’s and singles. She just recently got off of a tour featuring the bands Teen Suicide and Elvis Depressedly. Both groups are signed on to Run For Cover records, of which Dollanganger released two re-pressings of her LP’s Observatory Mansions and Ode To Dawn Weiner: Embarrassing Love Songs. She is also in the process of releasing another full-length, which is entitled Hillbilly Noir as of the writing of this article.
