Frailty (Jane Remover album)

In a 2022 interview with Pitchfork, Remover stated the reason she chose the title: "I think “frailty” means both weakness in the body and the mind. A lot of the experiences I talked about [on the album] happened during a time when I was physically and mentally not well."[6] In a 2023 interview with The Fader, she described the album as "walking in your neighborhood the morning after you graduate high school, when it’s sunny and a little bit cold”.[7]

Frailty was recorded at Remover's parents' house. She stated that she had to wait for her family to leave the house before recording vocals for the album.[7] Remover produced the entire album using FL Studio and an acoustic guitar.[6]

Frailty has been described as being, or influenced by, digicore,[2] indie rock,[5] hyperpop,[3] emo,[3] emo-electronic,[2] EDM,[3] and dariacore (a microgenre invented by Remover).[3][5]

Frailty's sound was partly inspired by the soundtracks of video games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Pokémon Black and White, and Undertale.[8][5] Remover was also influenced by artists such as Skrillex and Porter Robinson.[3] Remover stated that her "biggest inspirations as of today are my friends".[8] As Grant Sharples of Paste explains, Remover's influences are "scattered throughout, but [the album] remains Remover's show first and foremost".[3]

The album's artwork features a grainy and JPEG distorted photo of a house with two people sitting and a parked car in front. It is a screenshot taken from Google Maps while Remover was making the album. The house is located in Wakita, Oklahoma at 301 Locust Street. About the artwork, Remover stated, "I thought it was cool how the people in the photo are looking at the camera. And just the way the house looks. Everything felt ominous, but also familiar—like what I see when I go on my walks just outside of my house."[6]

Before choosing the current artwork, she searched across the United States on Google Maps to find "cool stuff" to screenshot, including highways. Originally, the album's artwork was going to be a screenshot of a place located in North Dakota with a bus in the front yard, but was scrapped due to the screenshot being low quality.[6]

The album was available for a limited time on CD and cassette upon its initial release. It was later re-released on CD and cassette in 2022, following the name change to Jane Remover.[9] Its first, and currently only, vinyl pressing was available on May 4, 2023.[10]

Frailty received critical acclaim. Mano Sundaresan of Pitchfork praised the album for its "adventurous" blend of genres, and wrote that the album's "tracks blur together with seamless transitions."[2] Grant Sharples of Paste also praised the blend of influences and styles.[3] He stated "Frailty is a testament to the power of genre and how everything we consume inevitably infiltrates our psyche."[3] Online music critic Anthony Fantano referred to the album as "consistently creative and impressive."[11]

Frailty was ranked at 47 on Pitchfork's list of the best albums of 2021[12] and placed on their list of 2021's best progressive pop music.[13] It also placed on Paste's list of the year's 30 best debut albums.[14]

• All tracks are stylized in all lowercase.

• Frailty on Bandcamp