- Intimate and surreal electro-pop on the Canadian artist's second mixtape this year.
- Cecile Believe's vocal and emotional range, with its exhilarating twinkles of vulnerability, made an immediate impression on me when I first heard her performing "Ponyboy" and "Faceshopping" during SOPHIE's UK live debut at Heaven. Her new mixtape, Plucking A Cherry From The Void, a collection of restless and reflective lockdown-fermented electro-pop bangers, has those same attributes in ample supply.
Breakbeats on "Stay Open," "Times" and "Living My Life Over (Extreme Vocal Edit)" satisfy any nostalgic cravings, while Believe's lyrics, effusing all the diaristic intensity of a Notes entry timestamped "3:47 AM," wistfully review the past as a means of understanding the present. "Crickets," co-written by A.G. Cook, retreats to a more dissociative state, fading out of lucidity with delicate piano patter and rippled vocals. The mixtape's most sensual moments come in its second half. "I can't take another night inside my body," she reiterates throughout "Bitch Bites Dog," an exploration of sex and power dynamics made compelling by its willingness to embrace the often frustrating realities that coexist with one's desires.
Now deep inside the pandemic's second wave, we're already awash with music written and recorded during the first. While this makes me feel queasy about the passage/non-passage of time, hearing releases that share the same subtexts of isolation, adrenaline and uncertainty as today can also be cathartic. Believe's unfettered vocal performances and solid pop lyricism make Plucking A Cherry From The Void a perfect companion for airing out the many moods inside your room.
Tracklist01. Times
02. Stay Open
03. Drop
04. Crickets
05. Living My Life Over (Extreme Vocal Edit)
06. Pjluk
07. Bitch Bites Dog
08. Exit Flatland