Song of the Day: angelic milk - IDK How

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards, is “IDK How” by angelic milk from the 2015 single IDK How PNKSLM Recordings.

angelic milk - IDK How (MP3)

To say that the music of St. Petersburg, Russia's angelic milk is teenage is hardly an insult. Earnest pop tunes with an adventurous DIY spirit and equal dashes of humor and pathos are going to earn that descriptor, and even more so when they're written by an actual teenager. The songwriter in question is Sarah Persephona, who leads the now-quartet, which is also part of St. Petersburg's Saint-Brooklynsburg collective. Persephona began writing songs at 14, and although her songs are more melodically immediate than those of many of her elders, her music never sounds "wise beyond her years", and it's all the better for it. Across the band's two EPs, Persephona makes her journey into early adulthood an intriguing and particularly relatable one. "IDK how" wears it's subject matter on its sleeve (it's inspired by a story of a girl figuring out how to perform fellatio for the first time), but with a gleefully-ripped chord progression and an audacious, rallying chorus, it turns an abstract, quintessentially teenage moment into something universal. Riding a smooth, hook-laden cadence in the verses, Persephona sounds effortlessly confident, but in the chorus – "I don’t know how, I don’t know how, but I learn fast/ I don’t know how, but if I learn how, I’d be the best." – she sounds triumphant. "IDK How" doesn't have the same world-beating ambitions as most of the pop songwriters on Persephone's level, but she's got something better: a self-assured musical voice that's going to keep on singing regardless of who's listening and an absolute thrill to cheer for.

If angelic milk announce any more shows or music, that news will be over at their Facebook and Bandcamp. Below, watch the gloriously green-screened video for "IDK How".