Annika Socolofsky - Don't say a word

Don't say a word

Annika Socolofsky

On June 23, 2023, Annika Socolofsky, a composer and avant-folk vocalist who explores colorful corners of the human voice — tones and timbres and techniques often dismissed as “untrained” or “unclassical” — releases Don’t say a word, an album of feminist rager-lullabies for the new queer era. Socolofsky, a “grotesquely gorgeous” (Chicago Tribune), an “unbearably moving” (Gramophone) artist, possesses “just the right balance between edgy precision and freewheeling exuberance” (The Guardian), and on Don’t say a word, a rebellion against the hetero-patriarchy, her voice carries us to worlds tender and violent and everything in between.

“As a queer Midwestern kid, I spent much of my life on the fringes of society. I was too butch, too loud, too opinionated, too emotional. As I grew older and began to find my place in the queer community, I began to realize that I wasn’t the one who was wrong for existing in my own way. Society was wrong for denying me my truth and power all my life. And then I got angry. I know I’m not unique in this experience. And I hope this music validates those who have felt this rage, those who thought they were alone in it.”
After years of being othered, Socolofsky ushered her anger into Don’t say a word. Through the process, the composer found love again — love for the disenfranchised child inside, and for her family — both given and chosen — who have been there for her. While searching for her lost love, Socolofsky also ransacked, reappropriated, and retold some of society’s most-loved lullabies.
“Lullabies have long been a safe space for women to express themselves. But at the same time, these relatively ancient texts often indoctrinate young minds with outdated, sexist, and homophobic ‘moral’ codes. As I delve ever deeper into my adulthood, I have found many of these lessons have harmed me so deeply that I have no choice but to rebel, to rage against the very words that once soothed me.”
In this raging rebellion against once-soothing words, Socolofsky wrote Don’t say a word, eight new lullabies for her adult self, cradle songs that assert love long muffled: self-love, queer love, love for her temper and tongue, and love for those who have lighted her way.
“This unapologetic profession of love and vulnerability is something I have felt denied all my life. And it’s time to reclaim it. These are love songs for the self. These are my feminist rager-lullabies for the new queer era.”

Track Listing
Don’t you cry
Don’t say a word
Tinker, tailor (Who am I to say?)
Little boy blue
Like a diamond
Loves don’t / go
Au clair de la lune
Shy one, sweet one
Album Credits
Annika Socolofsky, composer, vocalist, producer
Latitude 49, instrumental ensemble:
Max Geissler, cello
Andy Hall, saxophones
Andy Hudson, clarinets
Jani Parsons, piano
Chris Sies, percussion
Timothy Steeves, violin
Pascal Le Boeuf, producer
Michael Hammond, mixing
David Darlington, editing
Valgeir Sigurðsson, mastering
Xuan, album artwork & photography
Jonathan Galle, Andy Hall, Andy Hudson, Chris Sies, and Timothy Steeves, recording
Recorded remotely at the University of Colorado Boulder, Baylor University; Vancouver, British Columbia; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Greensboro, North Carolina in 2020 and 2021.
Commissioned by Aram Demirjian and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Shepherdess, Daniel Nesta Curtis and the Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble, and Girlnoise.