JOBIE’s “earworm lullaby” is beautiful experimental folk to haunt your autumn evenings
By Karenna Umscheid
In “earworm lullaby,” JOBIE utilizes spooky experimental production with her classic folk charm and poignant lyricism to create a haunting ode to a lovely monstrousness. It’s folk horror through music and an anthem for weird girls everywhere.
“earworm lullaby” is the lead single for Invaders From Within, an upcoming Emerson College BFA short film. It chronicles “a folk musician who isolates himself at an old house in the hot summer woods while struggling with both tinnitus and writer’s block” who “begins to uncover what creeps and crawls within the house’s walls.”
In the chorus, singing “It feels good to be us / It feels good to be someone / It feels good to be real love,” JOBIE adds a unique, self-love spin on the perspective of these otherwise scary, otherworldly creatures that haunt the protagonist. On her TikTok, she writes “I was tired of writing sad songs so I wrote this self love anthem from the perspective of alien bugs becoming human for the first time.” The slightly psychedelic production puts a little sci-fi spin on her typical folksy production, fully embracing the weirdness of the song’s premise.
In the first and second verses, JOBIE engages with the horror element that the song serves as a part of the film soundtrack. The lyrics, from the perspective of these invading insects, are ominous, opening with “I feel warm inside / White light all around / Against the night / The fireflies that live inside your mind.” The eerie second verse represents the self-determination of the film’s creepy crawlies, with the lyric “I see behind your eyes / You live a quiet life / I knew you wouldn’t mind / Me taking up your time.” These spooky lyrics match the more alternative, yet still folk, production to make a most haunting track.
From the high-pitched tone at the start, to the slow strumming and light percussive undertone throughout, JOBIE absolutely dials up the beautiful peculiarity of the song in her production. The instrumentation is their most playful yet, and paired with their consistently lovely voice, creates a delightful, spooky track to embody folk horror in music. Though a children’s lullaby would typically serve as a way to ward off fears of monsters, “earworm lullaby” embraces them wholeheartedly. It celebrates the spirit of being authentic and real, even if it means being villainized, unwelcomed, or simply too strange. The song serves as encouragement to embrace the nature of being an outsider, that there is so much to celebrate and be proud of in real love and individuality.
JOBIE’s very special songwriting ability chronicles her authenticity in every sense–not only in her heart wrenching breakup tracks, but also in her radically loving and confident track from the perspective of alien insects. They embrace the ability to be eclectic and weird, also explaining on TikTok that they made the song for “witches from the south who believe in aliens” and “everyone who collected bugs when they were a kid.” As much as tracks like “irish goodbye” and “grendel” melancholically reflect on insecurity and the feeling of being an outsider, “earworm lullaby” serves as a celebration for the authenticity in this existence. Harness the autumnal evenings under a dark sky with JOBIE’s folk horror single, an anthem for the beauty in peculiarity.