Cool About It

The fifth track on 'the record', 'Cool About It' draws its opening melody from Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel's 'The Boxer', an interpolation that sets the tone for a song about emotional restraint and the performance of indifference. The lyrics trace a deteriorating relationship through three verses, each voice navigating the space between what is said and what is felt. The narrator meets an ex at a dive bar, asks easy questions, and tries to project composure whilst internally unravelling. A Dork five-star record, 'the record' finds Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers collapsing into one another after years of solo work, their voices melting into harmony that feels both intimate and alchemic. Here, that closeness amplifies the song's central tension: the effort required to act unbothered, to walk someone home and pretend being with them doesn't feel like drowning. The delivery is tender but laced with the prickling heat of shame, the kind of raw truth the trio embolden in one another. The song's method-acting metaphor captures the performance of wellness, the polite lies exchanged when neither party can admit the damage. It's a quiet devastation, the sort of lyrical precision that runs through the album's course, asking difficult questions without offering easy comfort.