Friday 23 July, 2021
The new track for Karly Jewell features a time-bending amalgam of sounds and delights.
What begins as a full-throttle post-grunge—or is that perhaps mid grunge?—slather of sound and fury eventually morphs into a series of melodic layers, with a nod to emo along the way, until we arrive at the core: the chorus, with the 90s still in its veins but a more substantial rock flavour at its heart.
With opening lines like, ‘Bleeding from the scars, bleeding from the scars, tore me apart’, one would expect we’re about to visit a rather dark landscape; however, despite, yes, the narrative’s dramatic inferences and the presence of menacing distorted guitars and a feverish sort of brooding, the song’s apex is the subtle hook of the chorus, with its chime of ‘Don’t need nobody to save me.’
And adding to this hook is Karly’s vocal approach: a dash of Paramore, with a hint of Chrissy Amphlett. Quite a mix. The Melbourne based singer-songwriter began her career at a young age, going on to win the nomination for Up and Coming Rock band in the Vegas Rock Magazine awards in 2014.
This accolade was followed by an electronic rock crossover project that hit the top 5 positions in the Triple J Unearthed Dance, Electronic and Rock charts. Although the centrepiece of the track is Karly’s vocal performance, there is also a band—Adrian Kluke (guitar), David Beaton (bass guitar) and Mariano Marcos (drums)—who do a splendid job, their expertise easily discernible. As Karly says about her creative process, ‘It’s normally the hook I work on first, then find the best way to tell this story.
After I put most of it together, it’s time to get the band in the studio and let it all fall into place.’ It seems to all have fallen in place on this track; the variegated sections add up to a pleasing whole, adhering to what audiences expect of the genre while alluding to another side to Karly and the band’s creative armoury—one that will no doubt emerge fully-formed in the wake of Dancing with the Devil.
