Lina Tullgren is from Southern Maine just over the border of the northernmo… Read Full Bio ↴Lina Tullgren is from Southern Maine just over the border of the northernmost seacoast of New Hampshire. It’s an unexpected location for artistic incubation, but if you grow up anywhere surrounded by family and friends and weirdos interacting at all times with their own interpretations of creative output, osmosis is bound to occur. Shifting in trainings and traditions, the 23 year old eventually found themself a voice with the electric guitar, uniquely flavored and shaped from the many years of fiddle lessons and classical technique. The shifts in genre and in instrumentation are stark, but important. Lina’s morphing interaction with music has mirrored a growing determination to harness their ability to melodically and lyrically express complex emotions.

With 2016’s Wishlist EP – recorded to tape at the apartment of band mate Ty Ueda – Lina proved an ability to craft simple, introspective and succinct songs, each one a pulsing glow leaving you both hollow and whole, alone but never lonely. It is on Lina’s debut album Won that we reap the full rewards of this newfound confidence in expression and rejection of internal hesitation. “The writing doesn’t necessarily get easier, but I feel more comfortable tapping into emotions and going to those places that need to be written about. Won, as it turned out, is the product that I have been hearing and picturing in my head as I write and listen to music.” It is the product of what happens when you push past the fear of what it means to think out loud – to become accountable for your internal struggles by way of manifesting your ideas into songs that are then free to grow apart from you, to exist on their own while always remaining specifically implicative of you. Now backed by a full band, each track manages to remain piercingly intimate, sometimes brief, and always honest, while gaining a wholly new sense of gestation both sonically and lyrically.

“I am all the wiser now that I accept my fate”.

It’s clear throughout that Lina’s awareness of their internal shift is folded into every corner of these songs. The move towards working with a full band, the deliberate force with which their often quaveringly raw vocals are delivered, and the lyrics themselves are all constantly functioning to process and take stock of an updated self. Which is not to say this is an album of concise reflections or black-and-white conclusions. The darkly punctuated “Summer Sleeper” rolls in with one of the more concrete claims Lina presents us with. "On letting go: it's only as good as you want it to be, only as bad as you make it." This is an album insistent on the consideration of perspective above all else.

The album art, a reference to the historical practice of photographing ectoplasm expulsion, acts as a visual representation of the internal changes and newly gained perspectives precipitated by the writing and recording of this debut album. “Writing this record was a lot of looking inward at myself with close eyes. Figuring out what I had to get rid of and what I had to keep. I like the idea of an ectoplasm being something you’re expelling. That you’re getting rid of because it shouldn’t be inside you anymore.”

And at a certain point, growth is not just a process of replacing old selves with new, but often simply an act of expansion. Won in many ways continues to dig through Lina’s preoccupation with the search for home. It’s a deceptively loaded search sewn gracefully into the haunting and sparse track “Face Off." Whatever "home" means - a relationship, a physical space, a mentality, or an emotion - that’s up to the listener. As Lina puts it, “It’s a record for me, but it’s also for everyone else. I don’t claim to be totally emotionally stable, or smart in relationships, or always very conscientious of others, but this record is me reaching out and trying and maybe sometimes I lose but sometimes I win.”

Golden Babyland
Lina tullgren Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

GOLDEN BABYLAND

in the kitchen melting legos
i am sick i am alone
under some skin doesn’t matter
i am sick i am alone
coasting
you’re a favorite one

but you’re come and gone
wake up in some morning
you are well and you are fine
call your mother on her birthday (i forgot)
sit inside unwind
somebody called you golden once
you’re my favorite one
but you’re come and gone
and when i am with my friends
i feel okay

all i want is for someone
call me the golden babe

Overall Meaning

In "Golden Babyland" by Lina Tullgren, the lyrics express feelings of sickness, loneliness, and a longing for connection. The song begins in the kitchen, where the singer is melting Legos, perhaps signifying a desire to break down or rebuild something in their life. They feel sick and alone, as if their inner struggles are not seen or acknowledged by others. The line "under some skin doesn't matter" suggests that despite any external appearances, the singer's internal state remains unchanged.

The song then transitions to a verse about a person who comes and goes, described as a favorite but also transient. The singer wakes up one morning to find this person well and fine, while they themselves struggle silently. They mention forgetting to call their mother on her birthday, which further emphasizes their feelings of disconnect and forgetting important moments. Sitting inside and unwinding, they long for someone to reach out to them, to see them as special as someone once did before.

The chorus reveals a temporary reprieve from their loneliness when they are with their friends. Being in their company brings a sense of okayness, providing a brief respite from the emptiness they feel. The final line of the song, "all I want is for someone to call me the golden babe," encapsulates the longing for validation, recognition, and the need for someone to perceive them as special.

Overall, "Golden Babyland" captures the complex emotions of isolation, longing, and the desire for connection in the face of internal struggles.

Line by Line Meaning

in the kitchen melting legos
Engaged in a creative and playful activity, seemingly destructive but with a deeper purpose

i am sick i am alone
Feeling unwell and isolated, both physically and emotionally

under some skin doesn’t matter
Beneath the surface, external appearances are insignificant

i am sick i am alone
Continuing to feel unwell and isolated

coasting
Moving along effortlessly without exerting much effort

you’re a favorite one
You hold a special place in my heart

but you’re come and gone
But your presence is fleeting, here one moment and gone the next

wake up in some morning
Waking up to a new day

you are well and you are fine
Feeling healthy and content

call your mother on her birthday (i forgot)
Making an effort to reach out to loved ones on special occasions, but sometimes overlooking important dates

sit inside unwind
Taking time to relax and find inner peace

somebody called you golden once
Someone bestowed upon you a sense of value and worth

you’re my favorite one
You hold a special place in my heart

but you’re come and gone
But your presence is fleeting, here one moment and gone the next

and when i am with my friends i feel okay
Finding solace and happiness in the company of friends

all i want is for someone call me the golden babe
Yearning for someone to recognize and appreciate one's unique and special qualities

Lyrics © SC PUBLISHING DBA SECRETLY CANADIAN PUB.
Written by: Lina Tullgren

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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