The Singles Bar: DYLYN, ‘Wolf’
The pop firebrand doesn’t mess around with her ravenous new single.
Welcome to The Singles Bar, a review series focused on new single and song releases.
The figure of the wolf is one of legend. It’s one of great power, too, often associated with death and destruction, as well as representing a warrior’s impulsive, heroic nature. But depending on the culture and tradition, it has also been known to correlate with the Devil. One of Aesop’s Fables, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which derives the famous “to cry wolf” idiom, depicts a young shepherd boy’s trickery on the local townsfolk, as he fools them into thinking a ravenous wolf has consumed his entire flock. After numerous false alarms, a wolf appears out of the forest and picks of his sheep. In many versions of the tale, the boys also gets eaten.
Pop firebrand DYLYN lifts that sentiment for her new single “Wolf,” an ’80s rock throwback, akin to Blondie and The Go-Gos. A vehement empowerment anthem, the song permits the singer to unleash her primal instincts, savage and ruthless. “Girls like me should come with a warning / Boys like you should see the signs / Girls like me should come with a warning / Boys like you should know my type,” she sings, framing herself as the must-be-feared creature of animalistic rage and lust. She then howls into a misty mix of drums and guitar, swiped with synth undertones, “I wanna see you run when I sound the alarm.”
On the song, she explains, “‘Wolf’ was the aftermath of a shitty breakup and my family divide. It was as if the universe was telling me to rebel and revert to autopilot. Shutting my feelings off for a little while was a much easier way to live ⎯⎯ misery loves a hot guy.”
“Wolf” follows a string of other striking singles, including “Secret,” which moans with cool darkness, and “American Nightmare,” borrowing an air of Avril Lavigne-meets-funk. Her new album, Sauvignon and a Kimono, drops Feb. 23.
Listen below:
