Love Stinks on the Warpers' Sophomore Album

I love men, the sophomore album from the Warpers (the moniker for Denver musician Marie Hicks), begins with a missed connection, but not in a bar or a coffee shop. Nope, this one takes place in the video game Fortnite.

"He left me at Lonely Labs / I broke a wall with my Starstruck Axe," the gamer-girl protagonist of opening track "fortnite slowdance" tells us. Left hanging by her crush in the virtual landscape, she kills some time, jumping off the iceberg (where Lonely Labs is perched) — which gets her fall damage — then slamming a six-pack of chili-chug splash, which heals her up a bit. When she catches her next glimpse of him, there's no hiding from her feelings.

"Then there you were, zip-lining down with ease / I thought, 'Is he zip-lining down for me?'" she wonders with an isn't-he-dreamy breathlessness. She can't help but make a move, and pretty soon she's crooning, "Let's make this battlefield a never-ending romance."

It's a dangerously catchy slice of a modern "meet-cute," a well-placed lure for an album that is both lonely and bittersweet. After the opening track, Hicks mostly ditches the first-love vibes for thornier, more ambiguous meditations on breakups, infidelity and insecurity. I love men may have been released on Valentine's Day, but it sharply demonstrates the wide range of distress that romantic relationships can bring, from the ominous calm of the jangly, Silver Jews-esque "Spiritual Emergency" to the pick-yourself-back-up hopes of "b4 i fall asleep."

The songs aren't dirges though; they're appealingly packaged with bright coatings of the electro, alt-country, pop-punk and indie-rock genres. With Hicks recording, mixing and producing as well as handling all of the music, it has a DIY ethos and sound that hark back to such scruffy lo-fi geniuses as Atom and His Package.
The album was primarily inspired by real-life encounters. That includes "fortnite slowdance": Hicks is an avid Fortnite player, streaming on Twitch as moviexo. Some songs stem from "relationships, some of them were just these crazy experiences I had with men. I have a lot of anger around it, with how I've been treated," she admits.

That prompts the question: How seriously is the album's title meant to be taken? "The title, I love men, it's kind of like: 'Fuck you, men,'" she says. "But at the same time, I did love some of these men, and I do really value my friendships that I have with some men. Men aren't horrible, evil people; I've just had some very unfortunate things happen with them that I've had to work through, and I am working through."

Fittingly, the lyrics and her voice are honest as well as playfully weird. On the misogyny-skewering "incel," she tells the fixated title character (an amalgam of several individuals): "You sit alone in your room / And suck on my name / Because nothing feels better / Than me eating your brain." Later, on "love him destroy him," she speculates with uncomfortable clarity: "When I'm drinking / I get this sinking feeling / That he's bored."

In some songs, most notably "PASS ME ON," she lapses into a somewhat rambling, seasick flow that recalls Pavement's Stephen Malkmus or the Silver Jews' David Berman. She can sell it because, as with Malkmus and Berman, she can illustrate absurd conceits with sharp writing and wry humor. It's strangely touching when she sings "You tamed my heart like you tamed that raptor / You are my favorite part of every chapter." Hicks started the Warpers project during her music-school days, when she was majoring in commercial songwriting. As her production classes started requiring recorded material for assignments, the shy singer-songwriter balked at using the school facilities, so she decided to create her own home studio.

"I was way too nervous to be recording at school. A lot of people were fearless, and they would just get in there and record and wouldn't care. But I do, like, 500 million vocal takes," she says with a laugh. "So that's when I got the gear. I saved up a lot of money and invested a lot, [and then] I got really into recording and had a lot of fun." After a few years of developing on the back burner, the first Warpers album, Waterline, was released in March 2023.

But what's with the stage name?

"It's like a warped CD, right?" she says, explaining that the moniker sprang from brainstorming sessions with her longtime guitarist friend and collaborator, Dani Engländer. "I like the idea of something being a little off, a little bent, warped," she explains. "I love that it sounds like a group but it's just me." That may not last much longer, though: There have been sporadic live incarnations of a band, and Hicks says she's begun to feel the creative pressure to make that a regular thing.

"There's definitely motion in that direction," she says, adding that Engländer has already agreed to step in on guitar duties. The first priority is finding a keyboardist and a drummer to help with synth and percussion needs; Hicks is currently aiming to bring the Warpers to life on stage again this spring.

For the moment, she's basking in the satisfaction of releasing her first two full-lengths in eleven months, and doing it all by herself, soup to nuts: "It's felt really good doing this on my own," she concludes. "This is about me. This is my challenge."

I love men is available on all major streaming platforms now. Find out more about the Warpers at thewarpers.com.