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written and produced by Krissy Lassiter
engineered by Charles Mueller at Tiny Panther studio in Brooklyn, NY
mixed by Emma Newton at Big Nice Studio in Lincoln, RI
mastered by Heather Jones at So Big Auditory in Philadelphia, PA
performed by Sam Wolff (drums), Olivia Mancuso (bass), Ethan Silver Wheeler (guitar), Joey Fasolino (guitar), and Krissy Lassiter (vocals, guitar)
photography by Bao Ngo
latte art by Julie Patadia
album packaging layout and text design by Favorite Vegetable (Matthew Durkin)
Music Video
I ENJOY MUSIC VIDEO PREMIERE: Krissanthemum - "It's Behind Me, Now It's Gone"
by Molly Mary O'Brien
The backstory of the album comes from Lassiter's prolonged health struggles—the songs "emerged during years of unmanaged, debilitating menstrual illness" that culminated in a hysterectomy. You might expect such a fraught experience to inspire music on the darker side, but Lassiter's specialty is actually making beautiful and joyful music, music that emanates a positivity so powerful that it simply won't let despair take over. "It's Behind Me, Now It's Gone" is a sweet, retro, radiant psych-rock song that celebrates the ability to move forward after so much time spent in pain—the multilayered harmonies in the chorus are so bright, listening to them kind of feels like staring at the sun, only instead of burning your retinas out, you start hallucinating rainbow dolphins and hearts, Lisa Frank-style.
I got to ask Lassiter and Dong some questions about the making of the video for "It's Behind Me, Now It's Gone," which features a giant version of a classic board game, a glamorous beach freakout, and lots of cinematic running (best kind of running). Let's get into it...
Directed by Astrid Dong
Starring Anza Keller
DP Maggie O’Malley
Loader Casey Purtell
Editor Meghan Moynihan
by Mariah Yvi
by Bao Ngo
The Band Sounded Tight and the Timing Was Right
By Emma Madden
Krissanthemum (Krissy Lassiter) makes music in a world without tolerance for a body in pain. The Band Sounded Tight and the Timing Was Right, her first studio album, emerged during years of unmanaged, debilitating menstrual illness—years when jobs kept letting her go and doctors minimized her pain. But the album’s prevailing mood is not despair. Instead, it’s full of wryness and joy: stacked harmonies, chiming guitars, buoyant melodies. The record could only have materialized once Lassiter found a creative community that treated her with the empathy and dignity the rest of the world denied her. If the record tells a story, it’s this one: even when her body was in agonizing pain and the world tried to shift it to the side, she kept showing up for her friends; the band; and making something that sounded like a body in full health. She had to. The band sounded tight; the timing was right.
With stacked, sun-warmed harmonies, arch emotional candor, and the winking deadpan of anti-comedy, the album feels at once tender and funny. In Krissanthemum’s case, pain always lands with a punchline. Leaning into the anti-humor mode of delivering bleakness with a straight face, Krissanthemum is constitutionally funny across the record. Even at her sickest, she aimed to laugh, to be the advice friend. That instinct shapes the album’s emotional temperature: sadness is present, but so is a stubborn lightness. “Watching Gordon Ramsay on the television / I’m not doing enough,” she sings on ‘Pick It Up/Take Me Higher’.
Musically, the record lives somewhere between Elephant 6 psych-pop and bedroom emo: bright, layered, melody-forward songs that smuggle despair inside candy-coated harmonies.