“Medusa” is one of those songs that takes its time to reveal itself, upping its game in sonic increments as it moves from a blend of beat and bass-end piano notes and her seductive vocals crawling over the top to a full-throated primal scream. And it is not until the song is about halfway through that it is adorned with enough sonic trappings that it can even be called a song.
But this is what makes the song so great. It is almost as if you are watching the song being built in real time, directed to each tonal layer, each additional textural cacoon, each sonic addition as it is applied, almost like a sonic striptease in reverse.
And it isn’t just the music that is intriguing. As the title suggests, here, Catherine Elms takes the classical story of Medusa and turns it on its snake-infested head. Rather than looking out at the world beyond with that killer gaze, she looks inwards, and here, the snakes in question are the flaws and problematic thoughts, doubts, and anxieties that are found within us all. But rather than reject these imperfections, she tells us to embrace these monsters that reside within; they are, after all, a vital part of who we are.
This call for a dark embrace of what we have been told to regard as failings is matched perfectly by the creeping dread of the music, an important message, indeed, but not for the faint-hearted.
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