Songs of the Week: Dyan Valdés, Fox Apts. & Isabella Rosetta

Welcome to Songs of the Week, a running series with new selections.

Dyan Valdés – “I Remember What You Said”

“You took advantage of my youth, took me years to realize,” sings Dyan Valdés on her new single. “I Remember What You Said” gazes back upon a toxic, abusive relationship she once endured to offer a piece of advice to her younger self. “A woman isn’t born. She is forged,” she heaves and upends the pain as a way to cultivate the strength that was always there, only buried deep inside. “I’m never ever ever ever ever going to let your words be true, but they ring in my head,” she admits. Those skin-tearing words of agony may never leave her brain, but the silver lining is she now knows and cherishes her worth beyond all else. She trudge through the fire and stands triumpant and renewed in body, spirit, and mind.

Fox Apts. – “Founders’ Blues”

Banjo tickles the arrangement, first in rapid, sharp waves and then slower and more mournful. “Founders’ Blues,” featured in a deleted scene from Bones and All, is expectedly dark, as though shadows cast right over one’s very soul. Fox Apts. crane their voices over a gothic-stitched melodic fabric and howl at the moon. “Daughter come and die for me, protesting less and less,” they slide their tongues on the lyrics with a snarl. “Close your eyes, I’ll do the rest / Midnight comes and it’s the best.” Fox Apts. prick the skin with their musicianship, and it gnaws at the spirit as much as it’s apt to fit the cinema. It hangs on the eardrums, and its haunted melody worms deeper into your skull. You can’t escape it. And perhaps that’s for the best.

Isabella Rosetta – “505”

Isabella Rosetta misses home deeply, but painful memories keep swirling in her head. With “505,” she longs for those early days when she had a strong community surrounding her. The bleached-soaked production gurgles and foams around her hypnotically-whipped vocal cords. “When I come back, I might cry, supposed to be my constant / Feeling like a ghost who’s even scared of the thought of it / The silence of your voice is keeping me at bay,” she weeps, tears painting her cheeks. Surprisingly, “505” is Rosetta’s very first-ever penned song; it’s almost got a Lana Del Rey fluidity to it, particularly the melody’s languid bubbles. Saying she has great promise is certainly an understatement. She’s a star.

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