Coming ahead of her album, The Death of Cool, which features an array of New Orleans, Mississippi, and Muscle Shoals musical royalty, “Perpetual Light of the Void” is a remarkable piece of music. Not only because of the arrangement and playing found here but because it sounds like a song out of time, out of step with fashion, out on its own, out for itself, singular and, quite frankly, sensational….if you get my drift.
Here, Daphne Parker Powell, proves to be a force unto herself, delivering a song that juggles everything from delicate piano balladry, soul-searching memory, almost-operatic vocals, squalling blues-rock salvos, swooning and sassy brass, poetic and achingly poignant lyricism, and a heavy sense of pathos. This song doesn’t seem to fit easily anywhere, yet it explores everywhere. It is simultaneously swampy and yet sophisticated, charged with folk finesse, baked in southern soul, and jazz-infused. It’s like holding a gem up to the light; depending on how the sun’s rays fall on it, it reveals a different sonic hue or musical flash of colour.
Powell is not about comfort zones or familiarity; she is not playing to the gallery of listener expectation, and for that, you can only thank her. Thank her for being brave enough to be this original. For delivering something that sounds like something from the fringes of a past golden age (although you can never quite pinpoint exactly where or when). And thank her for unleashing the perfect response to the unshackling of creative restraints and sense of adventure that this post-genre world has ushered in.
