Emma Danner’s fourth record as Red Ribbon serves as a kind of re-introduction. It’s her first release since moving from Seattle to Los Angeles, and her first made alongside the legendary producer Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Cat Power). Red Ribbon is also Danner’s most unflinching record to date—her most blunt, her least sweet. Candid, brutal, and beautiful, the album channels unapologetic songwriters like Chan Marshall and PJ Harvey. “I’ve always censored myself, but on Red Ribbon, I let myself be more free,” Danner says. “This record feels visceral.” Red Ribbon is gutsy: a study in sex and heartache, it’s an irresistible document of liberation and vulnerability.
In 2020, Danner was working in a fried chicken restaurant in Seattle, playing shows with her band, and recording with friends. When the pandemic hit, she lost that job and decided to leave the city she had called home for so many years. Settling in LA, Red Ribbon began to take shape. Danner found a studio to play in and a new team of people to collaborate with on production. Over the course of a year, she built Red Ribbon, creatively reinvigorated by Schnapf’s astute touch. “It was a dream to work with Rob. He made some of my favorite records–the ones I found when I was a teenager and music just hits different,” Danner says. “His energy is calm, he is hilarious, and he created a studio where I felt comfortable being a sensitive person. I'm sensitive as hell, I have big emotions all the time and that can be hard for me. I deeply appreciated his approach to recording music, it allowed me to let some things go.”
There’s a blazing fierceness that permeates the record, informed in part by Danner’s recent foray into martial arts—something she studied while making Red Ribbon. Her time spent in the boxing gym and the studio were undeniably intertwined, each experience working in tandem to empower Danner to express anger, salacity and passion unabashedly. “I couldn’t help but learn how to be ‘a lady’ growing up: always polite, always friendly, always likable. So it felt nice and necessary to finally exhale against all of that. There are definitely elements of aggression and hurt in the writing of some of these songs.”
In the middle of recording, Danner and her partner split, and the songs she was already working on began to take on a new resonance. They seemed to almost predict the split, as if already in conversation with the present. “YSFP,” a song Danner wrote just days before her breakup and following a period of writer’s block, came out quickly and naturally; she called up Schnapf and immediately went into the studio. “I wanted the raw emotions, the grief and freshness of that time to be palpable in the recording. I wanted to hear it in the vocals,” she explains. An acronym that stands for “You’re So Fucking Pretty,” it’s a stunning song, all big guitars and even bigger drums. Danner sounds like she’s inside a washing machine, being tossed around. And the way that she sings it, “you’re so fucking pretty” sounds like a threat. It kind of is.
But make no mistake: Red Ribbon is also really funny. Danner has an infectious sense of humor that’s all over her lyrics. Set into motion by bright and shiny keys, “Angeline” is about working a catering job in the Hollywood Hills for a rich lady with a cardboard cutout of herself in her liquor cabinet, and who kept calling for Danner by the wrong name. Another standout, the hypnotic “Crying in My Car” sounds almost votive with its echoing synths and vocals, and finds Danner deeply in touch with her needs. “On that song, I’m really really sad, yet want to makeout in the backseat,” she says. It oscillates between tongue-in-cheek and entirely carnal.
Elsewhere, Red Ribbon explores fear: what it means to be scared, and what it means to advocate for yourself. The cathartic and enticing “Gang Star” started on Elliot Smith’s ES-330 guitar during a lull in the studio, and continued to take shape in the wake of heartbreak. Throughout the song, Danner lets go and talks more explicitly about topics she’d previously censored herself on. “I really wanted to push myself to talk about sex and drugs and things that I have experienced, but always felt I was supposed to be quiet about,” she says. Perhaps the record’s most direct track when it comes to pain and pleasure, “My Body is a Blade” speaks to being open about how you feel and fucking shit up. “I’m gonna break the law,” she sings over flickers of keys and guitars, “I’m gonna burn it down.” Then later, “I’m gonna knock you out/I’m gonna kiss you on the mouth.”
Danner’s humor, honesty, and virtuosity make Red Ribbon a riveting listen. But more than that, the album marks an unmistakable moment in her career and personal life. A thrilling and liberating ride, Red Ribbon is Danner breaking free. It’s biting but it’s alluring. It knocks you out and then kisses you on the mouth. Red Ribbon is also Danner’s favorite record she’s ever made. It might be yours, too.
