Dev Lemons’ Sassily Debuts With “SURFACE TENSION”
Album Review ★ Nash Jones ★ @_nash_jones ★ 7 Minutes
“When you talk, oh babe, I just can’t help but tune you out.” The lead single and first song of eight in indie musician and social media personality Devon Schmalz’, professionally known as Dev Lemons, debut album is full of sass, synth, and condescension. The reveal of the single, titled “NICE TRY,” came along with the album cover and announcement of its August release. The album is titled “SURFACE TENSION,” which dropped August first.
Dev Lemons via AJ Incammicia
TRACK 1 - NICE TRY
There is a particular tension in much of the synth work and melodic progression on “NICE TRY.” Having run a popular Tiktok page called “songpsych” for several years, describing why or how a song has a particular effect on the listener through music theory and technical terms, Lemons very publicly has the knowledge to cleverly execute a musical concept. Lemons’ artistic voice on this project is rather matter-of-fact and cocky.
This opening track essentially revolves around rejecting someone in a pretty harsh way, the chorus declaring: “It’s a little rude you think I’d choose you/ I don’t have the time for stupid dudes”. With a stuttering drum beat and fuzzy bass sounds, this opener knows how to get the audience amped up in a succinct two minutes.
TRACK 2 - MEDIA TRAIN
Lemons carries the energy from “NICE TRY” into track two, titled “MEDIA TRAIN.” Randomly using the word “media” as both a noun and adjective, the chorus contains lines like, “On a media date, I hope I don’t get media dumped,” as well as the first line stating, “I’m not media trained.” Indeed, the majority of lines written in this song are ones that a media-trained public figure would probably not say, as she gets frustrated with and infantalizes the person towards which the song is directed.
In a percussive refrain, she yells “I’m in hell!/ When you’re in the room, I go somewhere else.” As if trying to keep her voice soft and even, she sings, “Give me a break/ You’re such a prick, you’re sick in the brain,” her tone becoming further patronizing at the line “Give you a toy/ You’re not a man, you are but a boy.” The bass is a driving force throughout this song, and at the end the crunchy percussion and distorted synth come together as an electroclash breakdown that takes us into the next song.
TRACK 3 - FACE
“FACE” is a track of sorrow and anger. The instrumentation starts off mellow, and the lyrics place the listener in a situation that seems like the delaying of an inevitable end. “Do I feel your eyes?/ Watch me tighten my grip on the spite,” has you envision the avoidance of a hard conversation. The narrator is looking away, knowing things will become more real if their eyes meet. She doesn’t want to give them the satisfaction of meeting their gaze, while also knowing it would be all too much for the both of them.
“Eat the fall when I trip on your lace/ Drenched in your mistakes/ You’d rather kill me than see it in my face,” claims she has taken responsibility for someone's shortcomings, and they would rather distance themselves than recognize that. Lemons implores this person to realize this in the chorus, singing pleading octaves of “See it in my face/ Won’t you see it in my face?” The previous acoustic guitar seamlessly transitions to a dark electric before the drums kick in post-chorus, a slight distortion on Lemons’ vocals as she belts, “How many times will you lie?/ How many times will you hide the scars?”
The verse returns with the current instrumentation, and she makes a wish that she’d see the pain she bore repeated in this person’s face. Harsh thumps of bass come in as she asks, “Under your pity, are you suffocated?” before the unrefrained scream of “I wanna grab you by the neck and break it!” The pain is just as evident as the anger as the last lines ring, “How many years will it take/ To let me inside of your broken mind?/ Make you remember the pain/ You should be carrying all the time.” We end the track in a stark contrast to how it began, the deep bass carrying this song into the next.
TRACK 4 - DON’T PINCH ME
“DON’T PINCH ME” is reminiscent of late 2000’s alternative electronic,- a direction many emerging bands were going circa-2008 as dance music made a comeback- both through vocals and sound. The melody of the chorus is tense and unresolved, Lemons declaring, “Don’t like me, you can suck it/ Spit on you like a trumpet/ I’ll put your brain in a bucket.” The whole thing is a bit of a fever dream, and makes you wonder as Lemons sharply states- “Don’t pinch me, it is painful,”- Whether she created one she does not want to wake from. This “pinch” might bring her to the reality of her situation, like at the end of the first verse. A slight distortion is put over her vocals, bringing forward the high tones as she says, “Got it, you’re acting like you’re honest/ You’d tell me anything to get you what you wanted.”
Lemons discusses trying to alleviate some sort of emotional weight that wakes her from a sleep before the lines “I would watch a movie if it was not too long/ I am an adult, I do not care about the prom.” They seem nonsensical, while illustrating the flow of random ideas in the veil between wake and sleep, and possibly related memories that can come back up in times of anxiety. The song ends in a fit of percussion, an eerie synth melody, and bass so distorted you could mistake it for further drums. This flows right into the next track, as “FACE” did before this.
TRACK 5 - BROKE YOUR COVER
Surface tension is the tendency of a liquid to gather over the smallest possible area when undisturbed, such as dew on a blade of grass or a puddle in the tiniest divot on the sidewalk. While several tracks fit this idea of tension, confinement, and interpersonal conflict bubbling to the surface particularly well, “BROKE YOUR COVER” is akin to a breaking of this tension, where the narrator tears into the person the song is directed towards.
If Lemons is an ocean, she has been disrupted by the wind and heat, becoming a typhoon. The intro is particularly interesting, the ambient and slightly metallic percussion as foreboding as it is pleasing. “Careful what you say/ Break you like a brittle/ Take your pity to the grave ah-ah,” she begins, feathery and floaty. Thrumming bass comes in under watery chords as the verse repeats in the same vocal tone.
As the main section comes in, Lemons gets more intense and scalding, letting out anything she may have been holding back. Our narrator calls this person pompous, pathetic, and says they’re looking for a mother in a partner. Over thunderous drums and warped guitar sounds, she taunts, “Start the fight, won’t draw the blade/ Only pipe up if you know you won’t lose.” With her snide, “Too bad you broke your cover,” the narrator is seeing through someone with certainty, and making sure they know that too. The line is repeated as the final one of the track, echoing out in the background as the instrumental falls apart and fades out.
TRACK 6 - STUCK AGAIN
“STUCK AGAIN” is a melancholy stripped down song, which its previous track falls into. It explores the hurt in the aftermath of revealing everything that had previously been unsaid. “I’m supposed to think I’m on the lucky end/ Of a bargain I don’t want.” Just because something is the right decision doesn’t make it less painful, especially when you hoped for better, and Lemons reflects on that with taste and solemnity.
She investigates the push and pull, the fragility and frustration, in a relationship where the initial tension is broken and they seem to want to hold on despite the pitfalls. “Will you up and go?/ Vanish when I drop my guard?/ Or will you squeeze a little bit too hard?” The insistence with which a person holds on can make things all the more painful, but letting go hurts too. “When I look at you, It’ll scar/ You’re too delicate for my heart,” Lemon sings over a plucky and winding acoustic. While in the context of a previous song in this project, she might be looking with resentment or anger, in “STUCK AGAIN,” it seems like she would lock eyes with a knowing and pitiful look- unavoidable. Some delicate vocal effects make the melody flow similarly to the guitar, which warps upwards this time as the song ends.
TRACK 7 - WHAT ABOUT YOU
Lemons croons and lilts on “WHAT ABOUT YOU,” asking “Have you fallen/ Before I’ve even arrived?/ I’ll be honest/ I’ve barely learned how to drive/ To you.” Pleasantly airy, the vocals float over a plucky bass and acoustic guitar. This track sees our narrator hesitant and analytical. Things are new, having barely learned the way to this person’s house, yet thinking the subject of the song has already fallen for her, putting her in a confusing position.
She admits, though, they’re “Sweet as a bug in the front of the garden,” and acquiesces that this could be a good thing, concluding at the end of the verse, “Won’t go if you don’t let me down.” She continues on, imagining she loses her sense of self while with this person. “It’s so sudden/ Won’t notice I turned to a ghost.” Over orchestral strings and haunting background vocals, Lemons quietly and desperately implores: “What do you want from me?” The key drops continually before the vocals float off and the song ends on an echoing scream.
TRACK 8 - NOTHING CHANGES
“NOTHING CHANGES” is the final track of the album, and the longest. We see Lemons exploring the dredge of a toxic social dynamic over a muddy bass and skittering electronics. “Tell me that I’m getting through to you/ But nothing changes, nothing changes.” She belts the word “nothing!” into a sea of guitar sounds and drumkit. Post-verse, there is a musical passage of reverberating bass and a guitar solo that seem to scratch at the very confines of the song. It’s swiped away by a solitary acoustic riff and backing “oohs”.
She recounts manipulation, now in the past tense instead of the present. Her tone is bitter as she spits, “Stepped on bodies ‘til you grew,” then discussing the cold-shoulder and isolation inflicted on her. “If I don’t agree with you/ Disembodied ‘til I’d be sorry/ Why would I doubt your point of view?” We see someone willing to put others at risk for social capital and wears someone down into agreeing with them. Despite this, Lemons states the final lines: “Studied every page in your playbook/ Why do I still feel bad for you?” Over some thrumming background electronics and a dry acoustic guitar, “Surface Tension” concludes.
Lemons’ musical and otherwise artistic vision is individually unique and entertaining. Her current Instagram profile picture has her sporting highly-arched brows, overdone prosthetic lips, and dramatically long, black lashes. This was what she wore in the music video for “NICE TRY,” which sees several versions of her jerkily move and dance around a hotel room and pluck at a piano in a theatre, sparsely lit by a dim spotlight.
She creates promotional videos in the theme of a psychological thriller. “Free CD, will you take it?” Lemons asks, the video edited in a style reminiscent of a horror video game. She holds out a copy of “Surface Tension” to the “player,” the options “yes” and “no” appearing in grey boxes. Lemons then joyfully pulls them out to the woods, where they meet another version of her who then tells the person playing that they can have it after being hit on the head twenty times. They conclude their pummeling, a red vignette appearing on the screen during each, and quickly skitter away, laughing maniacally. There are both CDs and vinyl of “Surface Tension,” which can thankfully be purchased with money as opposed to twenty hits on the head.
An epic of a narrative in only twenty-two minutes, Dev Lemons’ debut album plays out like an avalanche. The noise of what initially set it off, the tense seconds before you can hear the rumbling, and the world comes crashing down. Lemons is a true creative with a one-of-a-kind vision, we can’t wait to see what she’ll do next.
