Whisper Doll share “So Sweet” today, along with an official video for the track. The song closes Lucky Clover, the New York band’s second album, out October 2 on Take Care Records.
Fiona Tagami, who writes and fronts the project, wrote “So Sweet” on her childhood porch in Atlanta while recovering from a surgery that had put her in the hospital for a week. Around the same time, she reconnected with someone from high school she’d lost touch with, and the two spent an afternoon walking train tracks outside the city, trading a complicated history for something closer to peace. UK music site Outside Left called the track “an alluring mix of summery shimmer and blissed-out vocals.”
The video carries the same shift in tone. Set on the stage of an elementary school theater, it follows two distant lovers finding their way back into a shared world, a quieter and more intimate visual than Whisper Doll’s earlier releases. Tagami co-directs the band’s videos with Owen Lehman, who has also worked with Geese and MX LONELY, and the two are building a visual world across Lucky Clover’s singles meant to match the record’s sound as closely as the songs themselves.
Lucky Clover marks several firsts for the band. It’s Tagami’s first record made with a full lineup, rounded out by drummer Shawn Majeed, guitarist Maya Lagman, and bassist Julia Chrzanowski, and the first made entirely in New York. Whisper Doll started as Tagami’s solo bedroom project in high school in Atlanta, shaped by The Sundays, Mazzy Star, and The Cranberries; she relocated to New York while making her 2024 debut, Perfume Garden, and built the full band from there. For Lucky Clover, the group worked with producer Oscar Compo from the songs’ earliest acoustic demos, then spent eight days recording with engineer Reed Black at Vinegar Hill Sound in Dumbo, layering in synths, keys, and bells to reach a sound Tagami describes as dreamy but still grounded.
Forgiveness and acceptance run through much of the record, from the title track’s admission (“I don’t know how I got here, but I’m here right now”) to “Bloody Knees,” written about repairing a broken friendship. Tagami points to Nick Drake as a touchstone for how the album handles grief and connection to nature, particularly on “Air.” The band’s name, and the murky closing-side track “Apple a Day,” draw from the 1966 Czechoslovakian film Daisies, whose visual style Tagami cites alongside photographer Jana Sojka as reference points for the album’s look.
“So Sweet” follows two earlier singles from this year: “Am I a Knife,” which announced Whisper Doll’s signing to Take Care Records, and “Bluebells,” released alongside the album announcement, which The Line of Best Fit praised as a way into “an optimistic, light-hearted fantasyland.” As the closing track, “So Sweet” lands after that arc of yearning, forgiveness, and acceptance settles into something quieter. Known for their live shows, Whisper Doll have built a following in New York’s rock scene and toured the U.S. and Japan, recently previewing new material at New Colossus Festival and in shows alongside Gift and Horse Jumper of Love.
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