Winston Liv galvanizes “thinking you’re destined for greatness and also thinking you’re worthless” through stained glass on their debut album. Joan of Snark, a reference to the iconic tragic figure Joan of Arc, turns the wheels of coming of age and learning identity through heartache, the difficult transition into adulthood, and how human beings carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. “You begin to lose your faith in a lot of things all while wanting to hold on to it because it’s all you’ve ever known,” they continue in a press statement. “World keeps turning / She stays still,” Liv sings over lush, sweeping strings in “Clouds of Violet. “Lighter’s burning, always will.”
The deep cut signals Liv’s natural poeticism, an ability to carve around existence and mold it into something transcendent yet unexplainable. “She owns our eyes,” they sing with sly bashfulness in “Valedictorian,” a song about young love and “swapping spit” with a crush. Its hard, sultry groove accentuates the underlying mental smolder and confusion. “You’re lucky that you’re hot,” Liv continues. “‘Cause that’s all you got.” The once on-fire romance vanishes like a candle in the wind. It’s an inevitable cycle of life. Love rushes in, and devastation bleeds out.
With “Werewolf,” Liv transmutates the classic myth of the werewolf figure, often an embodiment of being othered in society, into a wonderfully reassuring ode to gender fluidity. “My body is a revolution,” they sing over a funky tilt-o-whirl. “Nobody takes claim / Nobody knows my name / Nobody but me,” they continue, unraveling fangy lyrics like their life depends on it. And it does. Just look around. The singer-songwriter’s lyrical intensity is best exhibited with the somber “Crush and Burn,” in which they admit to being “so afraid of the brimstone, so I guess I’ll live alone.” It’s such pulverizing moments that cements why Liv chose the Joan of Arc imagery to backdrop the music. Teetering between absolute destruction and the ash that can then be sculpted into a new creation makes Winston Liv’s art as immortal as that long-heralded historical firestarter.
Joan of Snark erupts with several other moments, including the soul-shattering “Time Machine” and the giddy closer “Rock is Dead,” in which Liv says “goodbye to the old days” before shedding their skin. They emerge fully renewed in spirit, body, and mind. Sometimes, it takes hitting rock bottom before you can climb back out again. Transformation is inevitible in this life, and Winston Liv demonstrates their own rebirth.
Joan of Snark is out now.
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