Bacchanalia Magazine

by Reb Jordin

Babe Club, a Charleston based indie band, recently released their single ‘Forever Friend’ on February 23rd . The carefully crafted song explores the transition from girlhood to womanhood where amongst the chaos of new adult life you lose the important friendships which keep you afloat.

The song opens with staccato piano keys and the gentle strum of a guitar which slowly melt into the dainty yet powerful voice of vocalist Jenna Desmond, all together reflecting a pleading young girl wishing for the acceptance of a friendship when at this point in her life feels like the most important task in the world. The lyrics, ‘I wanna be your forever friend, I wanna give you the other half to my heart shaped necklace, tell you all my secrets if you keep them’ convey to the listener how easy it was to secure and trust in a friendship as a child. This moment in the single, intimately reflects the importance of sisterhood and friendship as a child, something that in adulthood is greatly overlooked at the expense of your emotional state.

The single is reminiscent of flowy white dresses paired with scraped knees in the summer, matching sunburnt noses and laughing over tea parties amongst the flowers of your parents’ garden accompanied by your favourite dolls. ‘Forever Friend’ feels like a secret passage back to the days of your childhood when your whole life revolved around nurturing that one friendship whilst you were too young to realise it. Babe Club writes a love letter, transporting you back to a time where fairytales felt real and nettle stings were the biggest pain you had faced. However, the song progresses as our narrator grows up, telling us in the land of childhood you think the world is yours to take before you reach adulthood and realise how difficult it is to possess it all.

‘Forever Friend’ describes the isolation you feel without the safety net of those strong friendships as you try to navigate life as a new adult. Desmond sings the lyrics, ‘after all the years gone by, after all the days in between us’ which paint the image to the listener of feeling ashamed as an adult to seek help and contact people that you feel you have neglected the friendship of even though you never meant of realised you were doing it. As a child friendship is something we can recognise as needing and relying on. However, as an adult submerged in a kaleidoscope of stress and responsibility friendships can get swept away as a forgotten thought as we expect it to survive and flourish on its own. It isn’t until we notice its absence that we realise just how lonely we are. Lyrics like, ‘I go back and tell myself I never was any good in keeping touch’ are extremely relatable to the listener as we have all lost friendships due to holding other responsibilities to a higher importance like romantic relationships and careers. However, ‘Forever Friend’ vulnerably explains to the listener that platonic relationships are just as needed in life and that they are not alone in feeling isolated or less than their peers because they don’t have a picture-perfect life.

The music builds towards the songs closure as the ritualistic lyrics, ‘will be mine forever, be mine forever, be mine forever friend’ cast a spell on the listener, weaving a tapestry of sun-laced thread telling the story of a time where friendships were simplistic as the summers were long and nothing really mattered that much.

So go and give Babe Club’s ‘Forever Friend’ a listen now and feel the catharsis of realising your loneliness is a normal feeling and anticipate what comes next for this wonderful band.

Cover photo by Kirt Barnett (@wavykirt on instagram)