This second single from the forthcoming Nocturne album, “I Took a Swim with Evil,” is one of those alt-folk/dark-pop songs that seems to reveal more and more with every spin, drawing the listener into its hidden depths and peeling back its various layers to display additional sonic secrets with every new rotation.
At first, it appears to be just another cool tune, a pop-aware slice of atmospheric chamber folk, and that would be enough for most people, but Jodi Heights isn’t most people. With each listen, the rewards are forthcoming.
One play-through will make you appreciate the intricacy and ornateness of the music, an elegant and eloquent dovetailing of Joni Mitchell-esque vocals and sweeping orchestration. On the next you might notice the clever use of vocal harmonies, voice as sound, rather than communication, used in the same way that the likes of Karl Jenkins took to exquisite heights.
Later, you get to the message of the song, Jodi remembering that as a child, you accepted certain beliefs with blind faith or kept your distance from certain people on trust, only to find later in life that one person’s definition of good and evil, right and wrong might not be the same as another’s, that morals and ethical values are an arbitrary and personal measurement.
Finally, you notice the song’s atmospheric production, which creates a wash of surround sound for the listener to bathe in, a three-dimensional music array that creates a fully immersive experience, almost making you a character within the song itself experiencing it from within.
What at first seems like a cool little, left-field, dark pop song turns out to be so much more, not least a treatise on ethics and a sonic deep dive into the very heart of atmospheric sound.
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