#lots of people can capture anguish in a song. lots of art can be 'raw'

[thesinglesjukebox]

MITSKI - GEYSER

[8.36]

Critically acclaimed artist becomes even more acclaimed...

Eleanor Graham: Retired from sad, new career in loud sad. [9]

Julian Axelrod: Mitski doesn't do half measures. Every song hits you with the full force of her emotions: the highs feel like you're flying, and the lows feel like she's ripped your guts out with a rusty knife. Each record has been stronger than the last, and while "Geyser" covers a lot of ground in under three minutes, it's almost frighteningly assured. Mitski sounds like she's created a suit of armor out of the climaxes of another band's best songs, an impervious rock goddess leading a cavalry of horns and organs and vicious guitars into hell to battle for her love. It roars and soars and growls and moans, collapsing to the ground so it can stand to fight once more. It is the sound of one woman giving you her all, even if it kills her. And this is just the first single. [8]

Alex Clifton: "Geyser" is several songs at once. It begins foreboding and mystic, almost terrifying (I hate how jarring the glitch noise noise is every time, although that's the point), and suddenly transforms itself into a love song of purest passion. Beginning at a melancholic point and ending somewhere happier not even two minutes later is emotional whiplash at its finest, and it somehow makes me cry every time I hear it. Few songs feel like a raw nerve that's just been tapped, pain and love and joy all shooting through it all at once; this is one of them. [10]

Katherine St Asaph: Starts out sounding like it's going to turn into Carina Round or Rose Kemp, then glitches for a second like it's about to turn into NIN or The Future's Void. It turns into neither of those, but rather two separate codas: a geyser-strong rock chorus, as promised, and a stately, meh ballad surrounding it. Two out of three ain't bad. [7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: The first half is brilliant--a Desertshore-esque gothic dirge that reveals itself to be a prim Julia Holter-type offering. The modulation to a major key isn't recognizably detrimental at first, but this shift ends the song on an anticlimactic note despite the roaring instrumentation. The winding vocal melodies, while in line with the lyrics, are also a bit too fastidious to leave a considerable impact. And yet, I find it all so utterly appropriate. That spike of noise in the beginning signals an unrest that's bubbling underneath, and the transition to familiar Mitski tropes reveals the freedom and confidence she's finally arrived at. While the final vocal melodies may feel inappropriately rigid, there's a clear understanding that she's come to this point from a place of both emotion and intelligence; people need to work through things from both perspectives if they want to exclaim boldly, "I will be the one you need." [7]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Maybe it's the organ tones in the intro serving as bait, but "Geyser" reads as religious in a deep sense -- not godly but ritualistic. It helps that the lyrics are less verses than chants, psalms to the very art that Mitski practices. This is the lushest that Mitski has ever sounded, all cascading horns and rolling drums, and she wears these grander things magnificently. The only shame is that the song is so short -- it's a holy experience that feels like it could be carried on for a bit longer. [9]

Alfred Soto: The massing of feedback for the purpose of building drama rarely gets done as expertly as Mitski manages, and for half the length of the most recent Florence + the Machine leak. [7]

Nicholas Donohoue: Mitski was the most charismatic artist I saw last year. Standing on a stage that would soon be occupied by Run The Jewels and Lorde, she was rigidly static with sheer vocal might, letting her band rage to her emotions. That "Geyser" captures that physical presence in a tidy, pin-prickle soul churner enamors me, and I don't know if I should let loose or hold firm. [9]

Juan F. Carruyo : Mitski carries herself with a solemnity that inspires admiration and coupled with a vocal performance that is as captivating as it is restrained, but by no means lacking in emotion. [7]

Ian Mathers: I've now written and deleted four completely distinct, much longer blurbs for "Geyser" because they were all just attempts to talk around the fact that it's incredible in ways that I'm not sure how to articulate. [9]

Pedro João Santos: Puberty 2 was all about being anathema to happiness--the confessions of Mitski, not for the pleasure of coming clean, but purely for an existential necessity. These were serrated declarations on life, attempting to grasp all its vicissitudes in a fleeting chokehold, lamenting and screaming relentlessly. As it turned out, a second adolescence was as inquisitive as the first and twice as draining. By the end, she vowed to submerge her fury, hiding it in a button-down, forging peace of mind. I like to think "Geyser" is the next chapter. An ominous, suspenseful organ kicks off the song in a way suggestive of bubbling anguish. Something is rising, but it's clear it's something else. And it majestically turns into overflow--pure, raw guitar-led potency being unleashed into the world, ridding itself of all contempt for a radical, statement of love; unspecified love, love in any capacity. This is personal vindication, the catharsis that extinguishes the ravaging fires from within. Happiness is a new hope, and this is Mitski's monument to it, one of precipitous, violent beauty -- the sound of a woman consumed not by something external, but herself, fully formed and braced for the future. [10]

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[0blivion-laughs]

ZHEANI

Zheani is an australian rapper, model and actress. Since a very young age she had a interest in working in movies. Later on her life she discovered music and now works as a rapper. She had released two full-lenght albums and one EP, aswell as some stand-alone singles and mixtapes.

This forward-looking, genre-busting musicality is on full display on Zheani’s latest EP, Zheani Sparkes. Lyrically, the record, which is titled for her real name, is brutally raw and honest. The self-described “fairy trap” artist made headlines in 2019 when she accused Die Antwoord’s Ninja of sexual assault — accusations addressed in her song “The Question” — and real life bleeds into her art again on the new EP, which takes an unfiltered look at her upbringing in rural Australia amid “drugs, crime, violence, poverty.” On the autobiographical lead single “DIRTBIKE,” she recalls “Donkey Dick Dave Jollow,” one of her mother’s boyfriends growing up, and reflects with anguish on her father’s drug addiction — all atop harsh trap-metal production courtesy of Revolver favorite King Yosef. We recently caught up with Zheani to get some insight into the new project, her background and outlook, and more.

WHO IS ZHEANI? CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND AND HOW YOU CAME TO BE THE ARTIST YOU ARE TODAY? I grew up in rural Australia and had a pretty rough upbringing. Zheani Sparkes is my real name and everything I do on an artistic level comes back to who I am as a real person. I got to a point in my life where I just had to start opening my mouth otherwise I wouldn’t be able to go any further.

IF YOU HAD TO DESCRIBE YOUR MISSION STATEMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Currently, I’m trying to tell my story as bluntly as possible. I hope that by doing so, people with similar backgrounds will feel less ashamed and alone. That’s what’s happened for me — making music has made me feel less ashamed and alone. I pulled the thread and was honest, and its been unraveling ever since. Now I just have to see it through.

YOUR SOUND MASHES UP ALL KINDS OF MUSICAL GENRES AND INFLUENCES. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT SOME OF THE MAJOR ONES AND HOW YOU DISCOVERED THEM?

I grew up with all the “adults” around me bumping Nineties/early 2000s rap. The themes portrayed were a mirror of my surroundings: drugs, crime, violence, poverty. I rebelled from that as a teenager by entwining my identity with the emo/metal/post-hardcore scenes that I found online. This was the music I could play that would piss everyone off. These days my youngest sister torments my mother with K-pop.

When I started making music, these worlds collided for me. It wasn’t just drug-dealing and braggadocio. It wasn’t just existential dread and self-loathing. It was drug-dealing, existential dread, self-loathing and braggadocio.

I had no musical training at all. In high school, my dreams of being an actress or director where quashed by everyone around me. Even those charged with educating me suppressed these ambitions. Girls from Rosedale State School never amount to shit. When I finally committed to trying music as an adult, I had no skill and no experience. I didn’t know what a note was to hold it, so the Auto-Tune got turned up and I hit that shit like Young Thug. But I think coming from an untrained naive place was in the end an advantage — I painted with the wrong end of the paint brush and therefore came out with something original.

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THE SONG “DIRTBIKE”? HOW DID YOU COME TO WORK WITH KING YOSEF ON IT?

With “DIRTBIKE,” as with a number of songs on my upcoming Zheani SparkesEP, I’m trying to give people context. I’ve made some bad decisions in my life like most people and I often feel judgement coming from a place of ignorance. With “DIRTBIKE,” I paint a blatant picture of a memory from my childhood and I guess I hope doing so will make people more understanding of what I come from.

“DIRTBIKE” was one of the first songs I ever created a “demo” version of, rather than just smashing it out in a session. King Yosef got my vocal stems and built the beat around it, with a bit of back and forth it came together. There is actually a witchhouse version of the song, but the final version is harsher in every way and it sounds how it feels: painful, embarrassing, like something you would rather forget but can’t.

photograph by Estevan Oriol

BEING A MUSICAL ARTIST, WHAT’S THE HARDEST CHALLENGE YOU HAVE COME ACROSS SO FAR, AND HOW DID YOU OVERCOME IT? I’d prefer not to talk about it. Anyone that knows the past year I’ve had would understand why. How do you overcome it? You just don’t ever back down and remain standing strong in the truth. The truth always finds a way and fakes get exposed. Karma is real.

WHAT BAND OR MUSICAL ARTIST ARE YOU A BIGGEST FAN OF? There is so much great music out there. I have a diverse taste and appreciate a lot of work by a lot of talented people, but as an adult, I try not to fan over any particular individual or group.

I have experienced the dark side of fandom and realize that it’s just not healthy to idolize artists. Every musician enables their fans to form a parasocial relationship with them, but all too often this is exploited by the types of narcissistic and personality disordered individuals that are drawn to performing and the limelight. It’s important to remember you are a fan of an idea and not a person — when you get these mixed up you enter the danger zone. Celebrity worship devalues your soul and is a sad reality in our society.