Credit: Laraw and Bravo Musique, 2024

I’m never gonna be your standby baby
You’re never gonna find another like me

A little over a year ago, I was supposed to see Laraw live at The Baby G when she was touring Quarter Life Crisis – her debut album that was released through Bravo Musique. Two days before the show, I came down with strep throat. I was bedridden and heartbroken to be missing out on her show. The Baby G is one of my favourite venues in Toronto and I was looking forward to an intimate show from a person who is a rising star.

Tonight, I’ll be seeing Laraw perform at the Rivoli with Ash Molloy. No strep throat this time around! Before the show, I wanted to give a rundown on Laraw’s Quarter Life Crisis.

The opening track, Quarter Life Crisis, is a pop rock anthem singing the trials and tribulations of expectations, loneliness, and finding some peace amidst self-doubt. Laraw sings, “Honey, tell me where I can find that spark that makes me feel alive?” and God knows I’ve been looking for it too. Creating our own mark on this precious life we live can lead to big questions about what we’re meant to do with our limited time. I can see Laraw knows that feeling all too well, as do I.

What I find most striking is when Laraw sings “See it all through someone else’s eyes, I know that everything’s all right,/ I don’t believe it always, /But I still love myself sometimes.” I see my own experiences paralleled in that verse.

When I go through an issue, I tend to self-analyze the issue from all points of view. Taking myself out my own head to talk to my friends and see it through their point-of-view helps decrease the feeling of impending doom but it does not address that sometimes I still feel like shit. The universality of the quarter life crisis comes for us all because we are all human, and learning to be an adult sucks.

Credits: Laraw and Bravo Musique, 2023

If there’s anything you might notice about me, it’s that I appreciate an artist’s vulnerability in their lyricism. Laraw really opens up about her past romantic experiences with Teach Me How to Love.

Having “baggage” (I hate this term, it’s so loaded but we’ll run with it for now) from past relationships taints each new experience with a potential romantic partner. Asking this new partner to teach one how to love in order to accept past experiences of being lied to, avoidant time wasting people, and the list could go on…

What I find interesting in the lyrics for Teach Me How to Love is when Laraw sings about “stupid boys with the stupid lies make me feel alive,” the tacit understanding that these kinds of boys are not stable providers of longstanding love. Similarly, as sung throughout, trusting that new person opens you up to the exact same possibility of negative outcomes but just as equally: you could meet someone worth your while.

To me, Ray is a love letter to a parental figure or loved one. Road trips, burning CDs, purchasing of your first guitar, laughing together. It’s so beautiful, to me, the relationship between a parental figure and a child or mentor and a mentee. Those are the people who have a huge impact on you as an adult but as a kid, you’re just enjoying their company.

Laraw has a wonderful way of singing about that special relationship, “When you’re running out of time, I’ll be by your side.” Such an affectionate sentiment to the express gratitude for a lifelong steadfast commitment.

September continues the theme of self-doubt and feeling the woes of being in your 20s. As I inch closer to being 30, I can say that any sort of self-confidence I have now was built over the course of my 20s. Like puzzles coming together to form the person who is writing this blog post right now. Being stuck is a part of the process to evolve into a person who knows how to pick themselves up.

Yet, with September, Laraw says something that is true for all of us anxious folk – no matter the age. She sings, “Sick of the curse I put on myself / Oh, this is hell / What a mistake, I need a break.” Even as I grow older, I still feel unsure of myself. Maybe this is how I know I still have a lot of growing up to do.

Credits: Laraw and Bravo Musique, 2024

Standby Baby strings together themes of heartbreak, bad boys and messy relationships we’ve heard throughout the album. Frankly, it activates a rage in me for all the people who make you feel like a second option.

Really, the lack of commitment and the carelessness results in a kind of indignation that can only come from being sidelined in hopes of something better. Worse yet, being made to feel as though you are cared for despite their reckless, perhaps even negligent, treatment.

Even more so, the tug-of-war between situationship and relationship is a facet of modern dating that feels the most frustrating as it combines all of the worst instincts of what dating is now. Laraw accurately captures all of what I’ve said so far, “Keep pretending / That you’re someone who did really care / About me.”

Fucks Me Up is a special song to me. It’s easily one of my favourites. All that has been mentioned so far is once again encapsulated in this track about a breakup between two incompatible people. For me, what makes this song standout from the rest is the rock aspects of the song.

But the song builds, it is not outright: Laraw guides us through the relationship. She asks the questions, about how that person made her feel, or the expectations that were placed on her.

By the end of the song, you’re also asking the same question, “Don’t you know it fucks me up?” And if you’re anything like me, you’re head banging every time she sings that line.

It’s an anthem, it’s meant for when you’re ready to scream your heart out. I think of how I feel when listening to Paramore or Avril Lavigne – a visceral reaction comes through. You feel the frustration from being, as Laraw sings, “left in the trenches.” It’s so raw, so open about the woes of breakups from pretentious and condescending people.

Still from the Kiss Me on the Floor lyric video. Credits: Laraw and Bravo Musique, 2023

Laraw ends Quarter Life Crisis with poetic musings on the fear of never finding love and of being alone. Kiss Me on the Floor is such a glittery tune. When I hear the song, I feel as though I’m in a haze of nostalgia and longing.

She begins the song by illustrating that she isn’t lonely, that she is the heart of party. But the fear of being perceived and of being known (when you’d rather be known as a previous version) pulls you to a halt.

Despite the feelings the song evokes through the strumming and synth, Laraw muses about trying to be on the same page as someone and finding that person to…kiss you on the floor. I like to think the proverbial floor that is sung about on this track is symbolic for the places you’ll be in different aspects of your life. One year: mum’s floor, another year: your own apartment. There are phases to our lives, and sometimes we can’t predict where we’ll be.

Kiss Me on the Floor gives us a finale reminiscent of real life quarter life crises: thinking about the future, about your love life, and moving towards that whether you’re ready to or not. It is the perfect tie to the first track, creating a beautifully cohesive record.

Still from the Quarter Life Crisis lyric video. Credits: Laraw and Bravo Musique, 2023

Growing pains come up at any juncture. When you’re older, however, you have the benefit of life experiences at your helm to draw solace from…but when you’re young, it’s almost like you’re flying by the seat of your pants.

Laraw has a knack for writing lyrics that are relatable to the messiness of being in your 20s. If I heard these tracks in the background of an HBO show about twenty-somethings finding their footing, I think it’d be a perfect fit (I’m looking at you, Rachel Sennott, use Laraw’s songs!).

I know the spark that makes me feel alive is found through bearing witness to artists in their zone. The excitement, the artistry, the final product of what must be an incredible amount of planning and self-reflection.

I can’t wait to see what Laraw does next. You can catch her on tour this month.

Have you listened to Quarter Life Crisis? What are your favourite tracks? Let me know in the comments below.

Have any interesting ideas? Contact me for collaborations!