The Singles Bar: Whoa Dakota tangled in paralyzing trauma on ‘We Create’

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

Since the 2016 presidential election, the world has crumbled into absolute chaos ⎯⎯ it’s gotten so brutal, we’re almost numb. The gruesomeness of the evening news and our social timelines can be unhinging, careening us into a loop of darkness without the hope of escape. But once we are aware of what is happening, there is a possibility of redemption and liberation. That’s what Whoa Dakota has discovered, at least, and her single “We Create,” a bluesy pop funk, illuminates the raging inner turmoil with sultry waves glistening underneath a creamy vocal. “There’s a lot of numbing that goes on, and if I don’t leave my house or my bed I can pretend it’s not really happening,” she says of the song. “It was my first time trying to write anything that didn’t entirely function around my own personal experience.”

“We Create,” which slides between torrid throwback soul and a classic singer-songwriter glow, was produced by Gavin Shea and Chris Gill of Handmade Productions, who have worked with such noise-makers as Luthi, Okey Dokey and Darius Rucker. “Holy water, holy wine / I turn off my imagination,” she sings, setting the stage of romance and escape. On the hook, she relishes in the quiet but commanding storm she creates with her lover, while also calling out the troubles which blow ferociously just outside the door, “Oh, but in a world away he’s tangled up with me / And oh, the orbit we create, I’m spinning through it / While the world comes falling down.”

“We Create” comes on the heels of 2017’s “Patterns,” a slicker and bouncier ditty detailing “the ruts we get stuck in emotionally and how we can continue to manifest the same unhealthy behaviors in our relationships if we aren’t looking at our emotional deficits and insecurities honestly and healthily.”

Her forthcoming album is expected later this year.

Grade: 2.5 out of 5

Listen below:

Follow Whoa Dakota on her socials: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Website