Ideas of shedding, and the power and tenderness required to do so, are evoked again and again over the course of Dead Gowns’ HOW EP. 
 ‘Renter Not a Buyer’ is the cheekiest of the tracks, but also the most indelible. The narrator, hungover and late to work, tumbles down the stairs from an apartment too drafty to be habitable. Bleeding from the mouth, she tries to kiss her date goodbye, avoiding a larger reality in her body. Songwriter Geneviève Beaudoin’s own experience with endometriosis informs this exploration: she sets concealed pain in direct opposition to the demands of saving face. This process is invariably fraught with contradictions and she is the first to recognize the absurdity of trying at all. 
 The rest of the EP is less fixated on the pitfalls of how one presents to the world. Though Beaudoin first wrote these songs as unspoken dialogues, she sees them now as affirmations intended for herself. ‘How You Act’ is a reclamation of agency: “Yeah it’s messy, grow up your heart” elucidates this revelation, with Beaudoin’s voice ringing out unaccompanied for a moment of quiet triumph.” ‘Change Your Mind’ is a celebration of this new life, emerging with gusto from the past. Set atop swelling strings and the warm swagger of a Fender Rhodes, this affirmation feels earned and regal. But it’s the final track, ‘Real Life,’ that reminds Beaudoin there’s no fixed point here. Her desire for change will always run alongside a past that won’t entirely stay past.