Album Review: L.A. Witch Debut Like An “Andy Warhol” For Punk Rock Music
L..A. Witch self-titled debut is packed with reverb-heavy, garage-rock, and psych sounds that scream “Punk Chic”. From its very beginning, you feel like you are with your best friends about to plot revenge against a rude, little ex. The record courses with reverbs that cultch revenge and lyrics that coddle mischief.
First, I have to say that, more than like L.A. Witch, I respect them. This album has a gnawing, attractive boldness; as if someone lit a cigarette and tossed it in a the gasoline-drenched car of their high school bully. (Who has not had that dream?). Yet, the image befits their lyrical scenarios of coming up against and crashing forward with all those that did them wrong. “ Kill My Baby Tonight”, “You Love Nothing”, and “Get Lost” have Sade, Irita, and Ellie bashing their guitars and keys like they were bats, and each was driving down the highway to scope through every hotel until they found their “enemy” . Their arrangements scream, “REBEL!”, with each melody being a miscreant, each synth being burned, and each drumroll being velveted as if to produce the feel that lead singer Sade is haunted. As she sings her lyrics of volatility, she utters each verse with a light heaviness like her voice were made from dark clouds. Thus, having such beguiling acoustics such as in, “Baby In Blue Jeans”, “Feel Alright”, and “Brian”, make Sade sound as if she is a woman on a crime spree, and you, the listener, are spectating through her mind. As she convinces herself she is doing right or relives how she has been done wrong, her vocals simmer with a nipped coldness that infatuates listeners. She is both emotionally distant from her sinful acts, but ingrained in the pain that motivated them. Is that not the irony? We feel the pain of our reasonings, but ignore the pain of our actions to others.
L.A. Witch have taken punk and placed it in an Andy Warhol frame. They mash its electric eccentricity with a purpose that is both glamorously artful and spiritually commenting. When someone messes with your heart, you want to mess with their life because, in essence, our life lies in our hearts. How we feel measures how see, which is why, when someone breaks our heart, they make us blind with rage. L.A. Witch’s self-titled debut is not here to question the “morality” of rage; it is here to give it a proper soundtrack as it goes into action. For More information On L.A. Witch And To Buy Their Self-Titled Debut Click Here.
