Sorry, Monday slipped away too quickly, so here is my obsession today.
Soft and subtly powerful, this new band ‘had me’ at their first song to hit the airwaves, “Equal Powers”.
You know how you hear a song and want to be sure to capture the name for future listening? Well, with “Equal Powers”, this happened to me multiple times. I eventually added it to a playlist and was then thrust into other new songs of the moment and quietly forgot my admiration Then, I recently heard another tune by the same band , I instantly Shazammed it. Yep, it was them, again….Violents and Monica Marten.
I love when I find more than one tune for a new band and new sound. Everything else slips aside and I have to listen to the album, except in this case, it hasn’t arrived yet. Then, when I did a little digging, a light bulb went off. Monica Marten is the lead singer of the folk-pop outfit, PHOX. I have actually covered her and seen her live, HERE.
It makes so much sense to me. Her voice, both power and softness, pounds a deep impression on my ears. Now with Violents, Monica Martin is opening a new musical venture and adding a more electronic/synth sound via multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Larson (Violents). So very different in style from her songs with PHOX, it took multiple listenings to realize she was one in the same.
I am digging it and looking forward to their first album out on April 28th, Awake and Pretty Much Sober.
“Awake and Pretty Much Sober explores the different stages of a relationship, from the optimistic rush of new love to the sobering challenges that arrive months later, after the so-called honeymoon stage has come to a screeching halt.” -Partisan Records
With a deep soulful vocal that can carefully dissect a one syllable word with an effervescent serenade …what is not to love? Okay, now add a swirling arrangement, casual beat, and almost classical sound….I am clearly smitten. A soft, but lyrically worthy, ease of music greatness can be found in their newest tune and their collaboration as a whole.
Violents and Monica Marten-How It Left
I didn’t have a plan
I’d love for you to spend it
This ocean without land
In a moment I won’t even know it
I’ll remember to forget everything that I knew
In a moment I won’t even know it
I’ll remember to forget everything that I knew
How it left I don’t know
How did he go?
How it left, I don’t know
How did he go?
I have no place to store this
Too heavy and too near
Where do I go to forget
Waste
In a moment I won’t even know it
I’ll remember to forget everything that I knew
In a moment I won’t even know it
I’ll remember to forget everything that I knew
How it left I don’t know
How did he go?
How it left, I don’t know
How did he go?
Tell me now ’cause I don’t know
Let it down, let it go
How could anyone absorb this type of absence?
Feel it all or feel nothing
Leave it all to keep it in
Nothing screams so loud as unintended silence
How it left I don’t know
How did he go?
How it left, I don’t know
How did he go?”
Here is “Equal Powers” too, for those of you that can’t get enough.
