best of 2024 • Girl and Girl • Maple Jean and the Anthropocene

Maple Jean dries of spit licked clean

And Ma and Pa are crying, once again

Ding dong, life begins

Palm fronds, mandarins

And I'm coming up, yeah life's not that bad

And I love Mum and I don't mind Dad

Oh my, how she's grown

Into her winter coat

We must let her go

There she goes, there she goes...

Then there’s Call A Doctor’s sorta-centerpiece “Maple Jean and the Anthropocene,” a five-minute epic offering a new perspective on climate change and the notion of what it means, in a personal sense, to suffer: “I live in the bushland, and I was driving home one night and hit and killed a wallaby with my car,” James recalls while discussing the song’s lyrical inspiration. “My first thought was, ‘What is the universe trying to tell me?’ No remorse, no guilt, just total self-centeredness. Which was like, Woah, you fucking psychopath! This wallaby wasn’t put on this earth to send you a message. That’s what the song is about, our egocentric species - thinking you’re the main character and that everything that happens is somehow about you.” subpop