It’s been a strange week for women in the media and public eye. While that’s hardly breaking news, let’s take a look at what’s happened so far.
Monday: It’s International Women’s Day! Let’s celebrate the brilliant, strong women in our lives and empower them to speak up about inequality.
Tuesday: Meghan Markle admits she was close to taking her own life while heavily pregnant because of harassment by the media, the difficulties she faced as part of the Royal Family, and how this seriously affected her mental health. In response, men and women across the world openly called her a liar, an attention seeker, accused her of acting and told her to get a grip and put up with bullying and racism because of her privileged position.
Wednesday: Sarah Everard, a British woman who had been missing for days having walked home alone, was found dead in woodland. An acting police officer was arrested on suspicion of her kidnap and murder. A Twitter war erupted after comments were made about how she shouldn’t have been out alone at night, placing the blame squarely on the victim. This in turn prompted thousands of women to comment on the many times that they had been intimidated, harassed, followed and even attacked by men while out in the public, and all the measures they had to go to to protect themselves from a possible assault. Every. Single. Day.
Some men really aren’t getting the memo, are they? Well, hopefully, Molly Burman can make it simple for them.
Today Molly shares her debut single proper, “Fool Me With Flattery”, an immediately melodic song that fleets between sharp, literate jangle-pop and the homespun, eclectic bedroom pop sound of the here and now. Even if this is not your usual cup of tea, once you’ve heard it, it’s going to be your earworm for days.
“I wrote the song after a long day of feeling overlooked and ignored by some of the guys in my life. I was fed up, angry and used the stereotype of a mansplaining misogynist to let it all out. This song is for anyone who feels belittled and like they’re being made to shrink themselves; be as big as you possibly can, and don’t let anyone fool you with flattery!”
Some people are drawn to songwriting, and some have simply never known to do any different.
The North London teen Molly Burman grew up in an inherently musical family, with both parents gigging musicians, her Irish mother singing with Shane Macgowan of The Pogues and her father performing in bands alongside members of Bow Wow Wow and Sex Pistols.
Molly began prodigiously writing and recording music herself from her mid-teens, self-producing her own material and writing ever-personal lyrics that have been never anything less than an unflinching, honest take on her life at that point.
“Fool Me With Flattery”, a surefire introduction to her sound, marks the first in a series of songs to land from Molly this year. Pandemic allowing, live shows will follow.
Check out more from Molly here and find her on Twitter @BurmanMolly