Radiance

Artist’s Statement: Radiance

Link to playlist

After diving into a lot of heavy content in other pieces, I wanted to do a piece that focused on a positive vibe throughout, and the word that kept coming back to me was radiance. I wanted to bring together the brilliance and glow of light, love, happiness, and hope; I first thought of what kinds of sound felt radiant (the twangy resonance of steel guitar, upward moving melodies, suspensions, voices in harmony), then I thought of moods and colors (energy, pride, brightness, shimmering metallics, bold neons). I painted this right around New Years, aka the Spotify Unwrapped time of year, and knew this playlist had to start with my 2022 most listened to artist: Lady Wray. The first time I heard Lady Wray I was hooked; how was she such a master of the throwback late 90’s/00’s R&B sound? Oh, she met Missy Elliot as a teenager and sang on a track on “Supa Dupa Fly” before collaborating with Missy for a whole album, there it is. Lady Wray is the embodiment of radiant; she cooly sings a tale of inspiration and builds to a growl, demanding us to “child, just let it go!”. She leaves the song hanging in midair, only to pick up a slower, more free refrain before letting go of the song entirely and inviting us to do the same and float freely away.

After leaning in to my most listened to artist of 2022, it only made sense to follow up with one of my most listened to artists for the past 6 or 7 years: Death. For anyone unfamiliar with Death, they were a band that created some of the most creative heavy music, and are often cited as the first to record  not only classic death metal, but also subgenres like progressive death metal, technical death metal, and melodic death metal. Their album “The Sound of Perseverance” got me through a lot of my most difficult times, and “Voice of the Soul” somehow balances the brightness of jangly acoustic guitar with the screech of distorted electric melodies that seem to keep pushing and climbing up and up. Chuck Schuldiner’s playing commands the listener to stay engaged and intrigued throughout the wailing voice of his soul. A treble-heavy intensity needed to be handed off to a warm, bass-rich tune; cue Esperanza Spalding. 

Esperanza’s album “12 Little Spells” is a concept album that explores chakras, magic, body, blood, legacy, soul, and being; it felt most fitting that “Now Know (solar portal)” be included to wind us through witchy consciousness and whip us up, up, up into a frenzied, otherworldly vision of beauty. After Esperanza leaves us feeling like a confusing beautiful vision, Linda Perhacs shifts our attention to the ethereal beauty of nature in “Morning Colors”. Instead of opening up our eyes and forcing us to see the radiance like Esperanza, Linda instead spins a tale of secret beauty and having a moment to ourselves, “Sometimes I wonder, should I wake him to see?”. Only to wax and wane further, “sometimes I wonder, has he ever really seen me” and then, finally deciding to leave this man in a stark world of blue, lacking the colors and beauty of her world. To me, the essence of radiance is unending shimmer and glow moving outward and glistening from within onto others; radiance comes from uninhibited openness, and to keep shining, we may need to leave behind those who dim our light (or simply are blind to it).

The sound that first came to my mind when I thought of radiance was Jerry Douglas’ steel guitar, and what better shimmering resonance than the ring of “The Three Bells”. Both the phrasing and the melodic shapes of this song really capture the ceaseless outward vibration of bells in a way that parallels the aura of radiant light. This transitions to the dreamy, far away guitar tone of Deerhoof covering the 1934 classic, “Midnight, The Stars, and You”. Feeling wrapped in the glow of stars and falling in love, we land in the gentle care of Jacob Collier’s stunning and explosive arrangement of “Moon River” (in an obvious nod to the radiant Audrey Hepburn). As a Cancer, the emotional radiance of love needed to be a focus in this playlist; “Todo En Mi Vida” is  one of the cutest love songs of the 2020’s in how boldly Ximena Sariñana professes her love being everything in her life and paints the picture of a long time friend she falls for in time. Rounding out the glittery, lovey feels is Lotic’s song “Love and Light”. Lotic is an artist heavily influenced by ballroom culture; the drama and emotion of Lotic’s music crafts moods and emotions in such an experimental and beautifully queer way. 

Continuing the theme of queering our ideas around love/radiance, in comes an unexpected Skeletonwitch. “Devouring Radiant Light” is  an intense call to look inward and find our inner light, so that “never again will we live in grey haze”. When we live authentically, we shine. In an unexpected parallel, Curtis Harding’s “Keep On Shining” keeps our momentum going in order to make it to the Big Gay Dance Party ™ that is Rina Sawayama’s “This Hell”. There is nothing more radiant than unapologetic queer club bangers, and there’s nothing that makes my little ex-Catholic-queertrans- metalhead heart happier than this tune. In sticking out the queerness of defying genres,  “Still Sun” by Obongjayar serves as the finale to leave us drenched in radiant sun. I hope this playlist helps awaken a journey of self love for you.