imani coppola’s “lying to my therapist” is a blast of gleeful punk nihilism

I honestly don’t think I know how to relate to anyone who doesn’t at least hear themselves a little bit in Imani Coppola’s gleefully unhinged single “Lying To My Therapist.” The single harkens back to the days when punk rock excelled at maniacally nihilistic sarcasm; shades of The Clash and The Dead Kennedys. But underneath it is that decidedly 21st-century anxiety: that anyone — let alone the person we pay to see us for who we really are — might see us for who we really are. An existential crisis has no business being this catchy or this much fun.

“Lying To My Therapist” comes off multi-instrumentalist Imani Coppola’s forthcoming The Protagonist out October 4th. The album is a sort of chronicle of the anxieties of living in New York in this moment of perpetual crisis. Says Coppola, “I needed to make this album as entertaining and upsetting as America itself is right now. I’m a fucking artist, it is my job to react to what’s going on in society, this is not the time to shy away from difficult subject matters, now is the time to grab them by the fucking balls.”