Many of the songs on Driftless are more intense than Anna Vogelzang's past work. She juxtaposes contrasting elements beautifully, like swelling choruses and quiet bridges.
"Lion" begins with a quick intro and strong vocals. "This is a song of being frustrated with where you're at, be it on the road or in your relationship or in a dead-end job," Vogelzang says.
The track's lyrics emanate self-questioning and frustration, then grow to incorporate the theme of self-sufficiency and the concept of finding the silver lining in a bad situation. Vogelzang's sweet vocals complement the smooth, flowing background instrumentals, making this one of the strongest songs on the EP.
"Amarillo" starts with gentle strings before morphing into what Vogelzang calls "a friend breakup song." She says this track was the most fun to record, but one of the hardest as well.
"I love the dichotomy of how happy and poppy this tune sounds and how dark the lyrics get," she says.
The closing track, "Why Not," is a good mix of Vogelzang's past sounds and elements of her more recent work. It's gentle and playful, with a hint of sadness. She says that after two years mulling over ideas for the tune, she decided to write about "reveling in the negativity" of feeling lost.
"It touches on the inner struggle between wanting to pull yourself up out of the din, and just letting yourself sink into the abyss," she says.
She says accompanist Shane Leonard helped the tune realize its potential.
"He wanted it to feel like the listener was diving into a pool at the second verse and suddenly was underwater," she says.
