Miserable

Kristina Esfandiari is Miserable. Based in the Bay Area and the vocalist in King Woman, Kristina writes and performs a brand of moving and evocative music that oozes with nostalgia – and the forthcoming Uncontrollable LP is no different.

Succeeding a string of EPs (Halloween Dream and Dog Days), Uncontrollable follows as Kristina's most complete and nuanced work. Written and recorded over the course of a year, this debut LP is consequentially the most emotional, and quite frankly, saddest release in her history as an artist. Wrestling with insecurities, grief, and the lingering feeling of lack of control, Uncontrollable compiles nine songs drenched with feeling.

Uncontrollable is out now.


Notable press:
Pitchfork "Esfandiari's anguished vocals summon heartbreaking ghosts, treasured memories, faded photographs on a wall. And like a friendship that decays instead of ending cleanly, “Violet” offers no sense of closure. The song’s weight lingers after its coda of cascading guitar feedback has ceased to ring, leaving a hollowed-out feeling that colors the world just a bit more blue.”

Spin "The tracks unfold slowly, and with a palpable sense of purgation… a nine-track work of dizzying lo-fi sadgaze”

Noisey "The band's upcoming new album, Uncontrollable, is desperately sad, and blissfully lovely—and the juxtaposition is sometimes startling, especially on dreamy reveries like "Oven," whose breathy chorus wonders if the narrator should "stick my head in the oven."

The Fader “Violet is a particularly poignant, shoegazey track that gets deep under the skin—not only with Esfandiari's boundless voice, but with the slow beating drums, steady, ominous melody, and the rise of tension in the form of fuzz and reverb.”

Stereogum "It starts out a bit like Deftones at their most lugubrious, all celestial moans and molasses strums, but it steadily builds into to a frightening beast of a song with tumultuous low end that will make you wonder if the earth has opened up beneath you and you’re falling into hell. You’ll seriously be shocked that Esfandiari covers that much sonic territory in just 2:14."

BrooklynVegan "Bell Jar,” is quite possibly her strongest solo track to date. It sounds as depressing as the Sylvia Plath novel it shares a name with, starting out not unlike the dark folk she recorded as King Woman, but building into big metallic shoegaze and ending with the reverbed screams that helped make Deafheaven such a memorable name in heavy music this past year."

Indie Shuffle "Violet, is a haunting comedown of reverb and shoegaze melodies. Esfandiari's cathartic and melancholy vocals seep emotion as the nostalgic sounds offer an insight into the demons waging war inside her head.”

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