Softcult mark the start of their year with new EP

 

Year of the Snake is the second release from Ontario based twin sisters Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn, aka Softcult. This is the follow up to last year’s Year of the Rat, which I saw potential in and even had on my top EPs at year end but ultimately I felt in no way tapped the true potential of this particular project. I kept my ears to the ground though and when they started dropping single after single for this next record I was very much looking forward to it.

Seeing as there were so many singles, we’ll go by order of track listing. The project opens with “BWBB” (boys will be boys) a more typical track from what’d you’d expect of a band of this genre. Borderline punk instrumental and themes of calling out violence against women and it’s justification in a male-led society. The percussion and drums are really strong here and the effect used to make every bare string pop is downright powerful. Leading to the final chorus there is a almost mosh-call like, half spoken word section more reminiscent of hardcore. My one issue with this is I really wish the vocals were turned up because;

“It must be nice for you to feel safe when you walk down the street,

But if you lay your hand on my sister again you might lose some fucking teeth.”

Is a statement that deserves to be projected loud and clear but found I couldn’t quite make out until I looked into the lyrics online.

Something I want to delve into with “House of Mirrors” is how it almost sounds like a sing-along-campfire track but it also sounds so full. The chords used as well as the beautiful, somber vocal delivery makes you feel up close and personal and yet the deep, intricate bassline reminds you that this is a full band experience. Lyrically we’re dealing with themes of moving beyond something you’ve worked hard for and not quite knowing where to go from here on. At least, with sections like;

“Everything is greener in my head, I guess that’s why I feel so disappointed and I don’t want to deal with the consequence. Does it matter in the end?”

At the end of verse two, that’s the vibe I’m getting. It’s something that, to me right now, I can relate a lot to and as simplistic as that wording is it really puts some things into perspective.

“Spit it Out” is for sure my favorite Softcult song to date. The opening bass riff is nothing short of incredible. There’s this sense of atmospheric sound scaping, especially in the chorus, that is really subtle but really keeps you in place in the moment. The entire track has this way of ending and starting again by toning the intensity way down and then coming right back up, something that I think is a classic writing tool in indie spaces but sometimes used in a way that feels like it’s just being played too much. There are of course simpler elements of a rock track like a guitar solo and “erase myself” being the best two word hook I’ve ever heard, but it’s a track that’s by far their own.

Speaking of, “Gaslight” is another perfect demonstration of Softcult’s ability to use atmosphere to really add to a track. The riffs sounding as echoey and far off as they do as well as the use of backing vocals makes the song feel huge. Also similarly to “Spit it Out” the track manages to “turn on and off” as it were just in a more relaxed sounding way. The narrative present should be fairly predictable given the title but something I want to point out here is the mirroring of the themes between this song and “Perfect Blue” before it on the track listing. On “Blue” it almost feels like a confrontation of a person in a harmful relationship and throughout “Gaslight” they start to take themselves back. Something I never could have noticed if I wasn’t given all these singles in their true form as this record.

“Uzumaki” has another strong opening with some strings that ascend back into the more traditional instruments. Sonically speaking this track doesn’t do anything new especially now that we’re at the end of the record but does continue the trend of incredibly strong quotables from;

“Sick of dragging this dead horse around.”

To

“House of cards fell apart to the ground, built it up just to knock it down.”

Which are both very simple ideas but ultimately feed into a concept and method of construction that I really admire about the song holistically. The track itself is circling and feels very much like being stuck in a hole of repetition in an emotion simulation that really makes you feel for the composer. That and the hook being “circle around” feels like an easy baked-in success.

Overall, I sort of wish I didn’t play into these singles much seeing as five of the six tracks were released prior to street date and made the first listen to it as a project not very surprising. What I will give the band though is that the sequencing they chose for the tracks gives each song a life that maybe they didn’t have on their own. What Softcult have shown here is that they’re masters of atmosphere, they’re fully able to make a lesson out of songs in an artful way and they have come a long way as songwriters in such a short time. This is a massive improvement from Rat and if this is the kind of thing they’re capable of with only six tracks I really hope to see a full length one day.

Softcult official website

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