Lisa Maria releases her second single, ‘Silhouette’ an atmospheric dark pop song. It is an elegant account of an endeavour to overcome a difficult situation rationally and with maturity.
Following on from the deeply personal ‘War’, ‘Silhouette’ further displays Lisa’s ability to communicate intensely emotional narratives in her music. Where ‘War’ builds into an explosion of distortion and noise, ‘Silhouette’ displays a contrasting emotional restraint. On ‘Silhouette’, the chorus intensifies but lacks the anger of ‘War’ and exhibits an intimacy and sophistication not achieved in the latter.
‘Silhouette’ treads gently forward with the semblance of a living entity. In the verses, it appears to breathe with soft, vibrato synth chords and a heartbeat of percussion. Lisa’s vocals are delicate, deliberate, and they push and pull in their level of intensity. With the chorus, the song expands suddenly into a pulsing, resonating organism. At this point, the song switches from a gentle gait to a powerful sprint.
The lyrics of ‘Silhouette’ also suggest that Lisa has grown as an artist and a person in the time since ‘War’ was released. ‘War’ claims the individual referred to in the song is ‘using the silence to start a war’, but ‘Silhouette’ rises above the need to lash out and blame, and instead serves as an opportunity for personal introspection. The lyrics acknowledge that ‘I’m not making time for myself’ and imply that this needs to change.
According to Lisa, ‘Silhouette’ deals with a time in which she became too invested in another person and lost some of herself to them. The minimal, reverb-heavy accompaniment that opens the song deepens this feeling. It gives the song a sense of loneliness which mirrors the emotions that manifest in those times when we invest too much in someone else.
Listen to ‘Silhouette’ below…
Words by Ema Stapleton
Featured image by Hannah McDermott
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