The Singles Bar: Cliffs and Caves scream in mighty ‘Defiance’

Welcome to The Singles Bar, a review series focused on new single and song releases.

Traumas hang as slow-melting icicles, residues of misery and tears dripping down, down, down. Long-toothed beasts then rise out of the abyss, licking their mangled chops, fangs glistening and hungry for one soul’s remnants. But in the age of #MeToo and #TimesUp, victims are being empowered to step out into the morning light and reclaim themselves. Those first few wavering footsteps take as much bravery as a knight riding horse-back into battle. Folk duo Cliffs and Caves (a mother-daughter collaboration between Lindsey and Claire Justice) ball up their fists into mighty battalions to face the dawning of a new era.

Their song “Defiance,” smoke rings in the dark, oozing upon the piano’s dazzling ivories, seeks to destroy. “If we all end our silence, there won’t be any confusion,” they strike blows for all of humankind with a pristine wall of voices. “We’ll become giants / And break the spell  of disillusion.” Strings and percussion scratch against each other in an unsettling mix, knotted and macabre. Producer Chris Jacobie, known for his work with Penny & Sparrow, allows Claire and Lindsey to mount a monumental structure within the confines of firmly planting their heels into the dirt. “I don’t need your permission,” the duo hurls into the night sky, a fire cast amidst the stars.

Lindsey and Claire flex their strengths as lyricist and musician, respectively, and come together for an elixir so magically potent, you can’t avoid confronting your very own truths buried in the stories. As they whisper in gasping breaths, “Small acts of defiance lead to a revolution.” And so, we all have a responsibility to employ our power and our privilege, as Cliffs and Caves so valiantly and justly display, to change the world and detonate a system so hellbent on hate and pain. “You better watch out / ‘Cause I’m coming for you,” they snarl between clenched teeth. They’re ready, and we should be, too.

“Defiance” leads the pair’s brand new EP, Capsize, out now.

Listen below:

Photo Credit: Kirby Trapolino

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