‘Princess Die’ is a refreshing bit of summer pop. Raw, gritty, and filled with that unmistakable surf sound, Mother Culture’s latest release feels like a gem from the 90s brought back to the fore for the 2020s. But perhaps what makes Princess Die so unique and engaging isn’t just its nostalgic melody that sweeps you away. No, it’s in the strange yet perhaps ever so intriguing question that the song poses to you. It’s written about our temptation to write about other people, particularly women, and put that out in the world. Their agency is removed from the equation, their autonomy stripped for the sake of a song.
In the chorus ‘Princess Die’ is sung as a play on words to Princess Diana who famously died in a car crash in 1997 and since has had a legacy created around her that’s stranger than any fiction. Using her tragic story as the basis for the entire song, Princess Diana thereby becomes the focal point of a larger message that’s so beautifully evoked by this Melbourne based indie outfit.