Eighty is maybe the most meaningful artist I've ever listened to. Somehow the words she said could correlate to my life exactly, with direct parallels and specific scenarios, in a way I've never had with other artrists. Sure, I could relate to some common scenarios or feelings with money of the artists I enjoyed. Maybe they had a song or two that mirrored me directly, but none as often as Eighty. Pretty much every Eighty song I could correlate to myself in an incredibly direct way. One thing she sings often about is the desire to run away, and she does so in an incredibly specific way. The desire to leave, but have some distant unknown return date. The fact that she, and I, are aware how this could hurt those around us if indulged.. I want the song 2 never end is perhaps her most direct version of this, but these feelings are mentioned in hangar, seer, buffy the vampire slayer, i caught the smell of smoke, duress, skinz and others. Sometimes I wonder if the artists themselves are aware about how much they sing about one specific feeling or topic, or if it just unconsciously slips into their work.
Plague Town is her longest project released to date, an ep with 5 songs. She has yet to release an album, she's said on multiple occasions that that is something she does not take lightly. Hangar is the first song I ever heard from her, and to this day still my favourite. This song fseels like a reach into my soul, putting into words things I never had the vocabulary for. She mentions having a false hospitalization at 16, something that happened to me. The first lines of the song discuss a scenario of driving aimlessly in a situation you know won't last with the other, full of unspoken secrets and agreements, a scenario that is unfathomably close to me.
The picture above is of Eighty wearing the dress she wore in the music video for Hangar. It is not in its original state however, and is decimated with blood splatters and extra accessories, in orde to signify the "death" of Plague Town. She had a funeral service for Plague Town's death on instagram live, as well as a concert, and held a auction selling some sentimental items related to the album. It is unclear why this death was necessary, as she stated she will still be playing those songs at concerts and they're still online. Perhaps she just wanted a more material way to signify she was moving onto new projects, as she released her new single scribble.
Interestingly enough, the future project of 8485's also revived blackwinterwell's old project "Drainpuppet". Blackwinterwells has released music under many names, but this project was socially retired in 2020, when she moved all her social media presence onto her main blackwinterwells account. Some songs have been released under it since, in fact an entire album was released in 2023, but is nowhere near as active as it once was. Perhaps Scribble by 8485 was released under drainpuppet instead of blackwinterwells because of the style of instrumental & production being closer to those released under drainpuppet than Well's main project. Or perhaps she would also like to revive this persona.