Dim Wizard – “Stoicism” | Single Review
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Self-Released
I am still working on learning that people can only give me so much. Nobody can provide me with all that I need. I spend so much time railing against others’ expectations of me that I owe them grace when they fail mine. I know that in coming out as a trans woman, I shattered my parents’ expectations of me as a man, so it is only fair that I accept that, in reconstructing our relationship, I value what they can give me instead of projecting an idealized version of acceptance.
David Combs has been making pop music from the verge for a while now, both in the recently retired Bad Moves and in his collaborative solo project Dim Wizard, which has featured the likes of Jeff Rosenstock, Ratboys, and Ings, among others. Combs’ new single as Dim Wizard, “Stoicism,” a collaboration with the Australian musician Katie Dey, is a piece of clattering synth-pop reckoning with failed projected expectations—those we place on others and those placed upon us.
Each verse opens with Dey asking, “Do you owe me strength?” before grappling with the fact that, even if the object of her questioning can provide her strength, it’s not always enough to combat what the turning of the world confronts us with. In the final chorus, Dey sings the repeated affirmation that “you don’t owe me nothing / it’s alright,” before the song drops out and the instrumentation comes back with a sense of resignation.
That final bit, those last twenty seconds, are my favorite part of the song, because it feels like knowing I’ll never get all I need from my parents, but it doesn’t stop me from hoping.
Lillian Weber is a fake librarian in NYC. She writes about gender, music, and other inane thoughts on her substack, all my selves aligned. You can follow her on insta @Lilllianmweber.
