michelle ray, “chasing shadows”
by: katy mombourquette
Michelle Ray channels her rich musical background to produce an electrifying summer bop with her new single “Chasing Shadows.” Growing up in an extremely musical home, Ray had an opera singer manager for a grandmother and a rock band manager for a father. Infusing both classical music and rock ‘n roll into her heart, Ray began classical voice training at age 10 and later performed backing vocals on her Dad’s band’s national tours and opened for their sold-out shows in Japan. As she grew and began to think about her own sound, Ray gravitated towards soul/R&B pop music, finding inspiration in talents like Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, and Bruno Mars. In the past years, she has been honing her skills singing in commercials for Maybelline, Mastercard, JCPenny, Nickelodeon and numerous others, and even found her way onto the fourth season of The Voice.
“Chasing Shadows” isn’t just any old summer anthem, it’s a paradoxical juxtaposition of the beauty of summer against the regretful longing for something that’s no longer there. Ray tells us “’Chasing Shadows’ is about thinking you can see or feel this presence everywhere you go but you can never actually hold it, it’s not tangible, so is it real or just your imagination? Instagram-filtered memories and drive-in movie fantasies melt together as we imagine a love that could save us.” From a sonic perspective, the single has a great groove, Ray’s velvety vocals, and crisp backing harmonies; all the fixins for a feel-good dance track. But her words are filled with hard realizations that add a layer of complexity, something that we often experience ourselves over the summer. It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure: you can blast it through your speakers on a hot summer night, lost in the dream-pop/nu-disco sound, letting the musical vibes ease your mind. Or, you can take a moment of reflection and confront the beautiful and wistful nature of summer. Either way, “Chasing Shadows” shows Ray’s ability to use her long-developed breadth of musical knowledge to her advantage.
the sea the sea, stumbling home
by: katy mombourquette
It’s a long life, made up of seemingly infinitesimal moments. The Sea The Sea captures those moments when you feel incredibly alive and in the world and reimagines them as flashes of light in their new album, Stumbling Home. When time seems to stretch into prolonged chaos, The Sea The Sea keeps us grounded in the essential with their beautifully intricate brand of indie folk-pop. The New York-based duo is composed of Chuck and Mira Costa, who draw their infectious melodies from pop, but otherwise subverts expectations with their unconventional song arrangements. More than anything else, however, this free-spirited pairing are lauded for their exemplary vocal harmonies. The Costas’ exquisite vocals fit together like puzzle pieces tailor-made for the duo. Their voices are completely authentic, sounding lovely and unblemished in their own right. But while duets are a key part of The Sea The Sea’s sound, they also play with thick choral-textured harmonies and solo lines to add some variance among the tracks while still maintaining their sound.
Stumbling Home is brimming with musical imagery that is at times delicate and at other times deep and rustic. The result is glimpses of life, as seen through nature and a little bit of magic. The opening track, “Nothing Brighter” sounds like light, with the glint of sunlight on a clear day in the understated woodwind flourishes, and the glowing bass and piano as the blurry hues of a sunset. The relaxed, tranquil guitar solo sounds like it’s underwater, painting images of rays of light extending down beneath the surface. “A Thousand Years” is more concrete, sounding like the musical equivalent of camping beneath a starry sky. The rich guitar picking and embellishments are the flickers of the fire as they rise above and become stars overhead. The track embodies the deeply rooted tranquility that comes from being removed from society, as felt in the gentle thump of the drum in the stunning interlude partway through the song. Other images are abstract, such as in “Rainstorm.” While there are no explicit qualities in the track that denote a storm, as a whole, it has this somber beauty to it that echoes that of the fall of rain and thundering clouds.
In literature and art, however, one can always find magic embedded within nature. The Sea The Sea captures this magic in their songs with sparing uses of synth and electric guitar. The chorus of the emotional “Broken” sweeps up in a satisfying multi-part harmony and ends with glimmering drops of guitar plucks. Towards the end, these drops lead the song to the pleasantly haunting outro “oohs,” transforming the sound from sparkling fairy dust to mystic beings deep within the forest. “Fall Before The Climb” starts with a simple voice and guitar, but builds, first with harmony, then with a gently driven beat and dulcet electric tones that return to the shimmering stars of “A Thousand Years”, but from the perspective of outer space rather than earth. The acute line “Can we be in love with it all?” summarizes the album as a whole, mirroring the idea of the moments in life when you feel alive and in tune with the world. Uncomplicated guitar strums and the Costas’ patented vocals showcase guitar and synth sorcery in “Stumbling Home.” Bowed strings make their appearance for the first time in this track. Despite how well they fit, the strings are a bit of a surprise, giving “Stumbling Home” a bit of refinement compared to the other, more rustic tracks. Subtle but welcome changes like this find their way into many songs on Stumbling Home. “Parachute” sounds like you would expect after hearing a few songs on this album, except Chuck’s harmony is missing. Instead, Mira backs herself with echoes and a feathery multi-part harmony that sound like forest nymphs. The track also feels more intimate than the others, beginning with some room noise and ending with an ambiguous woosh sound that keeps the listener tethered to the real world. The standout track “Real Thing” realizes a slightly harder, rock sound with a bit of sharp guitar strums and stronger drum beat. Every guitar, synth melody, and percussion part contributes to the full sound, and the universally appealing chorus line “ahh, give me that real thing” has that cathartic nature to it that makes this track one to sing along to. I only wish it were longer; every time I listen to it I’m disappointed when it reaches its end. “I’ll Be Loving You” and “Foreign Country” share an understated mesmerizing quality. “I’ll Be Loving You” and its 6/8 time creates this swaying nature that’s perfect for a love song. Spirited triplet guitar figures simultaneously embrace the vocals and the listener, coaxing both to sink into serenity. “Foreign Country” has substantial guitar, but the line “Do we ever really know exactly where we are?” floats across the background like falling leaves, and the perpetual beat invites the listener to snap along, almost in a trance.
The Sea The Sea’s 2014 debut release, Love We Are We Love, received praise from NPR, American Songwriter, and No Depression. The video for their song “Waiting” sparked the interest of Buzzfeed and Pitchfork, and was included at the international TED 2015 conference. But for the duo, Stumbling Home reaches a new level of fulfillment. “It’s the work we are most proud of to date,” shares Mira. “We are proud of the way we grew the arrangements in our new creative space. Making music fills us, and we also believe that it matters in the world. Our mission statement as a band is to remind people they aren’t alone — in their pains or their joys, and everything in-between.” This shrewd sense of the world, both what it seems to be and what it is, allows Stumbling Home to be a beacon of light in an otherwise ill-lit world.
still ghost, “look up”
by: leigha stuiso
The New Jersey music scene is infamous for having successful artists emerge, such as Pinegrove, Halsey, and Bleachers. It seems that New Jersey-based band Still Ghost may be on a similar path to that Garden State status with the new single “Look Up”. In late 2019, Dee DiMeola and TJ Haefner added bassist Liam McNicholas to the Still Ghost lineup. Their debut single, “Nervous Habits” was released in March of 2020. Now, the emo-rock trio is working hard to get themselves out there. Similar to the sounds of Paramore and Foo Fighters, there is a high energy to the music that has the ability to grab your ears.
“Look Up” is a hard-hitting track about perseverance, written and performed by all members of the band and produced by Evan Rudenjak. According to vocalist/guitarist Dee DiMeola, the single explores themes of “feeling like you’re not good enough, but working hard every day until it doesn’t matter anymore.” The release comes with a lyric video created by Jake Feldman. Check out the newest single, “Look Up” from Still Ghost now.
mating ritual, the bungalow
by: katy mombourquette
The LA indie-rock duo Mating Ritual has released The Bungalow, a quirky album made for the summer of 2020 that we never got. Finished on the day before mandatory quarantine hit, the album plays like an ironic look at a world that at one time, we thought was for certain. Vaguely inspired by the duo’s east-LA home, The Bungalow deepens Mating Rituals’ already cavernous pool of influences by incorporating elements of Bossa Nova and Disco. Previously known as Pacific Air, brothers Ryan Marshall Lawhon and Taylor Lawhon have already released three albums in three years, as per their ambitious and assured commitment to releasing five albums in five years. These released albums, How You Gonna Stop It? (2017), Light Myself On Fire (2018) and Hot Content (2019) have amassed much praise from The Consequence of Sound, Billboard, and the like, and The Bungalow is sure to follow in these footsteps.
“We wanted this one to be almost entirely light-hearted,” Ryan said about the album. To inaugurate this sentiment, The Bungalow offers the opening track, “Welcome To The Bungalow”, in which a jazzy backdrop radiates from your speakers, reminding one of easy-listening lounge music. Then, a slightly distorted voice begins to speak to you, to welcome you to “the bungalow.” He tells you that you’re “free to dance, if you’d like, or take a seat if that’s more your style.” His words are so specific, so vivid, and so personal. “There’s terry cloth robes in the bathroom if you need to wash the day off you.” It feels oddly unsettling… but certainly intriguing.
“Welcome To The Bungalow” functions as a swanky interlude that introduces the next three songs on The Bungalow. As we move through the album, we see two more of these interludes and two more sets of songs. The first trio is a dance group full of funky basslines and groovy melodies that entreat the dancers visiting the bungalow to get on their feet. The next track, simply called “The Bungalow”, furthers the all-embracing mood of the previous track, the words “come over to the bungalow, I’d like to show you around,” sung by a chorus of voices that conjure up images of a man leading a happy group of followers to the fabled bungalow, with people joining as they move along. Infused with arcade-style electronic sounds and vivacious energy, “The Bungalow” leads right into the next groove-filled song: “Voodoo.” This track begins with some Mother Mother-like vocals followed by a grand string flourish that could be taken right out of a song from the 70’s, but simultaneously manifests the present with alt-rock guitars in the chorus. “Elastic Summer” adopts a reggae beat and a retro melody that sounds like synthetic stars, but still sounds undeniably modern, straddling the line between past and present.
In another interlude we visit the street that the bungalow resides on– “The Third Steepest Street In America.” The jazzy drums and sax return, and the distorted voice continues to reveal odd and intimate details. It ends with an unresolved harmony and an upward moving melody to incite tension that diffuses into the next trio. “Unusual” initiates the three-track era of sweeping synths. It uses a drum machine and a thick atmosphere that surrounds a playfully disjunct chorus melody. The bridge is a colourful landscape with glittering synths and guitar. “King Of The Doves” may start with a clean drum beat, but soon enough some 80’s synth melodies enter the mix. The edge of the leading voice is coated with background vocals which are robotic, clear, and distorted at different times, creating a unique effect. After a guitar solo, a DEVO-esque bass pulses along, leading the track to its end. “Heart Don’t Work” is a slow tune with the disposition of a ballad, but it’s thickly layered with synths and Peter Gabriel-style drums that deviate from the classic piano ballad. As the lyrics say “I don’t know why my heart don’t work like it should,” it comes to attention that while this album may sound light-hearted, there are some deeper themes that are embedded in the lyrics to look out for.
We return once again to the lively bungalow scene in “My Postmate Is Here.” We hear the same eerily familiar voice talk, but there is also a second voice warbling in the background. It’s words are hard to make out, and they distract from what the first voice is saying, making for the perfect transition into the final trio of songs. These songs are harder to categorize, on one hand they share a sound with the album as a whole and elements of the other two trios, but on the other hand they are unique. “Ok” has the least amount of synths. For a moment it feels like it has an attitude with the edgy, swaggering guitar and bass, but when you listen to the words– “we’re all just trying to survive” and “I’m asking why,” it frames things in a more humbled light. The line “I wanna know the way I used to feel the sunlight on my face” is amusingly relevant; while it’s not about quarantine, those who have been isolated in their homes these past months can certainly identify with it. This track is sweeping in the sense that the nature of the vocals make one imagine him on his knees in an open field, pleading to the skies, but it’s missing the heavy synth component of the second trio. “Raining In Paradise” is similar to “King Of The Doves” with its cool synth melody, but it’s less atmospheric. This track features my favourite vocal performance– the melody plays with a higher range and has challenging leaps that are navigated expertly. Finally, “Moon Dust” is slow, soft, and more tender than any of the previous tracks. It feels familiar almost immediately with its soothing piano part and recognizable melody. A lunar synth interlude makes this track true to its name.
Although “Moon Dust” fits with the album overall, it shows how far the album moved from the opening track. It’s as though after your long day at the bungalow you’re beginning to grow tired and decide it’s time to go home. And of course, this cues a final interlude, titled “So Long, Los Guapos.” This interlude isn’t like the others. The distorted voice says “thanks for stopping by… until next time,” periodically throughout the minute and a half long track, but instead of the clear jazz sound, we get an atmospheric soundscape with guitar and some synth melodies. In some way, it feels like the perfect summation of all of the different tracks that are heard in The Bungalow.
The Bungalow embodies the carefree nature and gaiety of the summer we might have had if Covid hadn’t hit. But with its heavy use of nostalgic synths and hints at retro styles, perhaps it also functions as a projection of how society’s tendency to yearn for the past in the face of tension in the present. When you hear Peter Gabriel-esque drums or funky bass lines from the ’70s, you’re transported back to a time when the most recent worldwide pandemic was the Spanish Flu. No matter how you feel about the past or present, however, The Bungalow is a party where the hosts seem to know you better than you know yourself.
Make your way over to the third steepest street in America and stream Mating Ritual’s fourth album in four years.
“We are proud to present our new album 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐰
out now! Make yourself a daiquiri, light some incense, and enjoy the ride” — I like how quirky these guys are.
the dead milkmen, (we don’t need this) fascist groove thang
by: leigha stuiso
The Dead Milkmen’s (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang 7”, marks the first release since the 2017 release of Welcome to the End of the World EP. The legendary Philly punk band was set to record their new album in 2020, which came to a halt due to the pandemic. However, their latest release features their post-punk leaning cover of Heaven 17’s classic, anti-Fascist anthem “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang” and a new original single called “A Complicated Faith” on the B-side. The release comes via Philadelphia-based independent label The Giving Groove, who donate all label profits to a 501(c)3 music-related charity; The Dead Milkmen have chosen Girls Rock Philly as the recipient for this release.
“(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang” comes right in time for the upcoming Republican National Convention. The track gives Heaven 17’s original a facelift, adding a steady and updated beat to match their original sound and 1981 lyrics. After playing the track live in concert, after the 2016 election, the band headed to the studio to record their version. The band’s original song, “A Complicated Faith” is three minutes of Depeche Mode-inspired rhythms and a scalding guitar solo courtesy of Joe Jack Talcum. The two tracks stick to their melodic brand of on-topic, thumping beats.
After over 30 years of making music, give or take a 13-year break, The Dead Milkmen still got it. The band’s current lineup consists of Rodney Anonymous (a.k.a. Rodney Linderman), Joe Jack Talcum (a.k.a. Joe Genaro), Dean Clean (a.k.a. Dean Sabatino), and Dan Stevens, who joined the group following the death of original bassist Dave Blood. With the release of (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang 7”, fans will be delighted to have new songs to listen to until the anticipated album is out.
Keep up with the band here.
anna wolf ft. pop morrison, “the unfamiliar”
by: katy mombourquette
There’s something about a folk/indie vibe that feels so incredibly creepy in the context of horror. (“Tiptoe Through The Tulips”, anyone?) Singer-songwriter Anna Wolf and songwriter/producer Pop Morrison certainly bring this spine-chilling energy to their title track and music video for the horror film “The Unfamiliar.” Wolf is a singer-songwriter and holder of many awards for her sharp and highly idiosyncratic music. Morrison is known as Jamie when he drums for the rock band The Stereophonics, but he transforms into the eccentric and explosive Pop Morrison when he takes on music production.
The music video intersperses scenes from the movie with close up, blurry shots of the duo. With Wolf and Morrison lingering outside the narrative, the video feels like a micro-horror work in its own right. It plays with the dynamics of dark and light, and though it’s simple on the surface, there are layers of intricacy that reveal the deep amount of thought that was put into it. As Wolf sings “the dark and the light” the shot moves from the darkness surrounding her to the light shining on Morrison’s guitar. A fleeting scream cuts through the song as the visual flashes to and from a shot of a child from the movie. These subtle touches add a lot of depth to the video, creating a haunting and memorable performance that finds its own beauty amidst the occult psychodrama of the film.
The music itself is atmospheric, but sparse, leaving you feeling exposed and vulnerable. Voices sweep across the background like the wails of a ghost. Drums beat gently but ominously beneath Wolf’s searing vocals. Her voice takes on the supernatural quality of Kate Bush and Joanna Newsom, helping her to embody the eerie, possessed nature of a ghoul. Even Pop’s guitar has the transient, mystic feel of a phantom, thanks to his precise production. While the rest of the track feeds into the sinister feel of the film, the acoustic guitar adds an interesting fairytale quality that projects elegant indie-folk imagery for the audience. There’s a lot in “The Unfamiliar” that reveals things about the film. Morrison says, “The song sets a tone before you’ve even seen the film, the same way the movie leaves a mark after you’ve seen it.” The duo did an excellent job of executing the vision of the filmmakers, with the film’s director and co-writer Henk Pretorius saying, “Anna Wolf and Pop Morrison’s music dreamily conveys the dark lure of The Unfamiliar. I got emotional when I heard what they created.”
About The Unfamiliar
The Unfamiliar is an independent horror film, set in the UK and Hawaii, showcasing a melting pot of rising British, European and South African crew and cast members. Directed by Henk Pretorius and produced by Llewelynn Greeff and Barend Kruger, the Anglo-French Jemima West (Indian Summer, The Mortal Instruments) stars as British Army doctor Elizabeth ‘Izzy’ Cormack, returned from war to rekindle her relationship with her estranged family. Alarmed by the numerous inexplicable activities around the house, Izzy seeks ineffectual professional help before confiding in her husband. He believes that she is going through PTSD and advises her to rest and recuperate in Hawaii. It’s there that she gets sucked into the underworld of Hawaiian mythology, as she attempts to piece together the elaborate and elegant puzzle to reveal an ancient and terrifying spiritual presence haunting her family. You can watch the trailer here.
brontë fall, finishing school
by: katy mombourquette
Today, the deeply relevant EP Finishing School was released by Brontë Fall. The literature-infused pen name is the songwriting project of classically trained musician Teri Bracken, who is ever inspired by the Brontë sisters and their courageous defiance of social norms at a time when women’s voices often went unheard. After coming across Emily Brontë’s poem “Fall Leaves Fall”, Bracken fell in love with the idea of finding beauty in the darker seasons of life. In her own life and music, Bracken embodies the spirit of this poem and the Brontë sisters with an openness and eloquence that firmly impresses her messages in her listeners’ minds. Most of all, Bracken wants to use her art to empower those around her and to connect with those who can identify with her experiences. She says:
As a musician, I almost feel like I’m defending who I am and what I want. Perhaps I feel pressure to be a certain way. These songs were written about feeling proud of where I am and what I’m doing. It’s about feeling empowered wherever you are in life, and celebrating the past while building your own kind of future.
Bracken attacks her issues from different places, opting for a tougher sound in “Warrior”, “Bad Ideas”, and “White Dress”, but also showing her softer side in “Six Years”, “Freeway High”, and “Give You A Halo.” No matter her musical approach, however, her words show her courage and boldness to say what she has to say. Finishing School is packed with empowering anthems, sometimes punchy, sometimes subtle, but all with catchy choruses that use repeated words and melodic lines to drive her points home. Each track deals with a female experience, entertaining and inspiring her listeners along the way.
“Six Years” is a celebration of aging contrary to the praise put on the youthfulness of women in today’s world. Bracken’s voice isn’t loud or confrontational as she sings, but rather it assumes a calmness that comes from a place of complete honesty. Yet at the same time, her voice could fill an entire room, ringing out full and glorious. The track slowly builds, with drums and the bulk of the music only coming in in the second verse, giving it its anthemic quality as Bracken sings “I’m six older, six years smarter, six years stronger with a will that’s unbreakable.” “Freeway High” is all about liberation and letting go. On the surface, this liberation is symbolized in the freedom of an open road but, on a deeper level, it calls to mind the freedom that the Brontë sisters and Bracken herself were (and still are) fighting for. The track has a bit of a country sound, drawing the line between Bracken’s pop and rock influences. Her soaring vocals rise straight to heaven where they’re greeted by angelic harmonies, while a solo violin part adopts its own sense of liberty as it freely moves through notes. In a heartbreakingly tender but equally powerful ballad, “Give You A Halo”, Bracken sings of someone she’s afraid of losing, written for her Grandma. It begins with a ¾ time piano part that reminds one of a black and white scene of a Parisian street in a melancholic french film, setting the sentimental mood for the track. Strings slowly join in, exploring soul-stirring deep ranges that fortify her words. As Bracken sings “Oh late at night I try to call on you without tears in my eyes… but I’m not ready to give you a halo,” with such an earnest conviction, you can’t help but to feel your own heartbreak.
While all of these tracks are similarly calm with a subtle sense of empowerment to them, Bracken is far from one-dimensional, and the remaining three tracks on Finishing School show it. “Warrior” is tough with its electric guitar and blues-rock singing style. Dealing with the fight against misogyny in business and the music industry, this track is a swaggering anthem that uses a piece of wisdom from Donatella Versace (“A dress is a weapon”) to depict femininity as an arsenal. From her voice to her words, Bracken is unapologetic and badass, singing “go ahead and call me a tease, I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve.” “Bad Ideas” has a darker sound to it, with low-range underlying harmonies and short string strokes that add a sense of drama. The song points out how complicated life can be, wanting to “unbreak” someone’s heart even though it’s a bad idea. To close off the EP, “White Dress” returns to the spunky energy of “Warrior” but in an old-fashioned way– using an organ and a bluesy sound that feels somewhat ironic set against her modern feminist words. About the constant pressure to get married, Bracken defies expectations and sings “it may not look like the rest, this is my white dress,” showing that she can find fulfillment outside of marriage.
This closing track brings us right back to the core of the album: honesty. Bracken is channelling the Brontë sisters and their feminism to provide an EP that not only speaks her truth about the expectations that persist for women even today but also gives validation to anyone out there who wants to break free of those expectations. Finishing School may cross into different genres and explore varied musical elements, but each song is unified by Bracken’s expressive voice, and most importantly, her beautiful and pertinent words.
donna missal | bedroom sessions
Earlier this summer, Donna Missal released her beautifully raw and utterly powerful album Lighter. Its soulful vocals, touching lyrics, and country-meets-90’s rock sound garnered an impressive amount of praise from publications like Billboard and The New Nine. But releasing an album in the midst of a global pandemic is different. It’s missing that live performance component that usually goes hand-in-hand with the release. To remedy this, Donna offers her evocative “Bedroom Sessions”: four reimaginations of songs off of Lighter in the form of intimate live performance videos shot in her L.A. bedroom and childhood backyard in New Jersey. Each video was directed by Missal, and features projections of footage from the process of creating Lighter superimposed on top of her. The immersive projections, the personal setting, and the newly envisioned instrumentals aim to recapture the connection of a live performance environment in an intimate space. Missal explains, “From the shifting paradigm for the way artists connect to listeners, along with the inability to tour an album live, we’re all trying to fill the void – connect, and create. ‘Bedroom Sessions’ is a take on the challenge of staying close to others through music, even from far away.” What results are fresh snapshots of the acclaimed album that elevate Donna’s exceptional vocals, sending out shockwaves that crumble walls even in her gentlest moments.
Delving into the wounds of a relationship, the original studio version of “Carefully” overflows with emotion. Backed by solid drum, string, and piano parts and embellishing harmonies, Missal’s words ring out like a reflex, unable to keep the depth of her feelings inside. In the bedroom session, her voice is much softer and accompanied only by her brother Stevel Missal on guitar. The emotional effect of the original is powerful, but here, in her bedroom, this intimate space, watching her untouched motions and expressions… her voice is absolutely earth-shattering.
In a similar way, the familiarity of Missal’s room in the bedroom session of “Bloom” augments the sincerity of the message, which in the original version depended only on the humble guitar and voice combination. As she sings “I don’t want to be the reason you don’t shine, realize I’m standing in your light…I don’t want to be the reason you don’t bloom,” she makes eye contact with the camera, supported by multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Liv Slingerland’s rustic guitar playing. Watching her face, her eyes are the colour of integrity, and you can’t help but to hang on every word she says.
“Who Loves You” is the most avant-garde endeavour of the quartet. While the original has this nostalgic, well-rounded sound with slight blues-rock vibes, the bedroom session uses an omnichord and lushly layered vocals to create an otherworldly atmosphere. The musical texture is much more sparse, allowing it to feel untethered from the earth itself. Missal used two microphones to record the layers of vocals, an impressive feat to accomplish from home. By the end, each of the voices soars and crash into one another, drawn to and pulled away from each other in an immersive and surreal soundscape.
Set against the others, “Slow Motion” endeavours to offer a new take on the original meaning of the song. As it was in the original, the bedroom session is an ode to letting go, but rather than being recorded in Donna’s bedroom in L.A., it was recorded in the backyard of her childhood home in New Jersey, drawing up memories of the past and showing how far she has come. The studio version is a moving piano ballad with understated but powerful energy that peeks through in the belted chorus. In her backyard, Missal is less firm and more gentle, singing on top of a thinly dispersed assortment of shimmering strings. Her voice is not nearly as supported as it is in the original with its resonant piano accompaniment, but Donna doesn’t need a musical foundation at all. The strings are just sparkling ornaments on her already magical voice. As she sits on the grass in a sequined gown and belts out the chorus in an effortless vocal performance, the effect is staggering.
Missal’s bedroom sessions are a brilliant way to stretch the novelty of her recently released album, but also to connect both to her fans and to new listeners through the universal experience that the pandemic has brought to all of us. They are simple, but thoughtful and extremely affective, and in a way, exactly what we need in the world right now.