If you’ve been on the internet at all in the past year and a half, the name Pictoria Vark should not be a strange one to hear. Besides being astronomically hilarious on Twitter, her artistic prowess is known far and wide. Coming off a tour playing bass for Squirrel Flower, Pictoria Vark is amping up for her next release via Get Better Records, starting with this single. “I Can’t Bike” is accompanied by a wonderful music video, recalling what seems to be a life in the year of quarantine without your friends physically by your side.
“I Can’t Bike” is a delightful song starting off soft and sweet, only a vocal and the strum of a guitar for the first 30 seconds. Vark certainly knows how to command an introduction with only her voice, recalling that feeling of being so small under the gaze of somebody else. The song continues to keep a mid tempo beat, drums and guitar picking up in such a way that I didn’t even realize I had been bopping my head for about two minutes. It’s a great song for the come down of summer — the guitar riff sounds like what longing feels like, with the video attached being one of Vark moving around her apartment with little cut outs of her friends.
It’s a wonderful video, directed by Vark herself, creating a very relatable atmosphere as she plays Uno, drinks White Claws and dances around the living room seemingly alone with only these small paper recreations of her friends as company. We were all there in that position, especially in the time of “Zoom Happy Hours” (God, can we please never do that again? The only thing worse than drinking yourself into a stupor is watching your friends on a screen do it as well and having your internet die on you) and constant Face Timing. You’re both together and so far away, enough to be maddening. Humans are such social creatures, and it hurts to be alone. As the song picks up, the guitars amping and high hats crashing, we watch Vark reunite with her loved ones. And it’s so tender, so heartwarming to watch, so relieving to see someone who was so alone find the ones who make their lives a little bit brighter.
This song is wonderful and will have every single indie kid with their PBR tall boys head bopping away when we all get to see Pictoria Vark live and I can’t wait for the day. Stream “I Can’t Bike” on all services and pick it up from Bandcamp — it’ll be the best decision you make all day.
TAGS: Pictoria Vark | Get Better Records
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