Songs of the Week: Maty Noyes, Starpainter, & Your Heart Breaks
The new roster features moody new cuts.
Welcome to Songs of the Week, a running series with new selections.
Maty Noyes – “Lighter Thief”
Maty Noyes‘ voice cuts like a thousand knives. When left with a guitar and little else, those jabs are vicious. On “Lighter Thief,” the singer-songwriter roots for the anti-hero, “the bad boy in the movie that gives you just enough hope that he could turn good,” she says. The arrangement shimmers in the sun, whooshing through the veins with intense pressure. She sings with a wistful sigh, “Hot box the melodies, I’m just tryna slip by / So damn close to me, you barely notice me.” You see, the anti-hero in film is a placeholder for those exes in our lives that inhabit the same space; they’re not good guys yet we hope they can change. No matter how you slice it, it’s a recipe for emotional damage.
Starpainter – “Summer in Your Mouth”
It was the dead of winter when Joel Stretch wrote “Summer in Your Mouth,” a tune that references Al Purdy’s “Transient” poem. That particular lyric (and song title) wiggles inside the bones, a notion of longing for the past and feeling helpless to stop the hands of time. Along the songwriting process, Stretch didn’t realize the song began taking on a new form: seasonal depression. While the song title should evoke cheeriness, the song itself is languid and sad, with fragile musical notes that weep and willow in the hot summer heat.
Your Heart Breaks & Vincent Sagisi – “Queer Fire”
“Queer Fire” smolders and coils around the ears. “Speak to me,” Your Heart Breaks (Clyde Petersen) whispers, Vincent Sagisi’s voice tying in knots. “I used to be ashamed / I’m learning to let go,” Petersen vows. The pain and fear and shame melt away into a wax blend of percussion and synths, almost burning up the listener along with it. Later, Sagisi zeroes in on the song’s thesis: “I can’t quench the queer fire.” It’s an act of declaration, reclaiming one’s worth in the face of disdain and contempt. It’s the only way ahead.
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