With angelic vocals and a devilish title, this track’s meaning can be quite misleading. Further clarification can be found in its timely release two days prior to its parent album’s drop on April 3rd, 2020. Perhaps even more surprisingly the song is an adeptly layered lyrical defense of womanhood and its historical see-saw mischaracterization from demonization to deification. Song-poet James explained to Apple Music, “[It’s] about the role of feminity and how it’s been viewed traditionally, and how I think it’s beautiful, but also really fucked-up and dark.”

“mother laid her elbows on the bed
whispering her wishes to the threads
weaving in the weight of all our dread
wiping up the stains of our regret”

Purity Ring is Edmonton, Alberta’s vocalist Megan James and multi-instrumentalist/producer Corin Roddick, a duo known for their “striking lyricism” matched synth-pop, dream-pop soundscape. The New Yorker would describe them as “creat[ing] electro-pop that is as warm and human as it is cold and alien, an intoxicating combination that feels boldly futuristic.”

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Mother-record WOMB is a quest for comfort, the search for a resting place in a world where so much is beyond our control. And in relation to its individual tracks, as the ground shifts beneath their feet, WOMB’s characters help one another face death, despair, and world-altering discovery with resilience and grace. The album as a whole is a darkly joyous treasure-trove of innately sensuous gifts.

“what is happiness but a word
spoken from on high for what it’s worth
flown beneath the wings of little birds
but i have felt the wind crawl where we’re cursed”

The music video for “i like the devil” echoes the song’s sparsity with each enhancing the others’ depth of meaning. Heartbeat-like woozy pulsations writhe and swirl as a whirling dervish bleeds an aural heaven’s caress of slow-building intensity, vibrant and electric, harnessed in the pleasure of a ritual culminating in rings of explosive rapture. The plaintive piano gently fades à la petite mort (the little death).

“i like the devil (can fly)
i like god (can fly)”

~

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A more extensive review can be found on AnInjusticeMag by Daniel Whyte IV
Cover Art “duplicity” © 2023 – disturbedByVoices – All Rights Reserved