(Gold Medal Recordings)
The opening track on Jenny Wilson’s fifth album is called Rapin*. It’s a stark, shocking title for a stark, shocking song: the lyrics describe the night the Swedish musician was sexually assaulted. But Rapin* isn’t just monumentally disturbing, it’s also strangely upbeat. In it, Wilson says she had been clubbing before the attack, and she carries the earlier part of the evening into the song too, as whirring synths and crisp, insistent beats coalesce into an irresistible groove. The guilty confusion that comes from bopping along to such subject matter soon solidifies into wonder at Wilson’s ability to maintain this discomfort. We hear details of the assault’s psychological aftermath in unsparing detail – the sense of disassociation, the horror of intimate medical attention, the attempts to rationalise the attack. Lo’ Hi’ provides an unsavoury reminder that the burden of proof often falls on the rape victim, as Wilson recounts the evening again – this time repeatedly flagging up her vocal protests. Disrespect Is Universal, meanwhile, has her hopelessly attempt to identify her assailant, before attributing his violent misogyny to another culprit: society at large.
This isn’t the first time that Wilson, who made her name as a member of noughties electro-indie band First Floor Power, has channelled serious trauma into her music: in 2013, she recorded Demand the Impossible! while undergoing treatment for breast cancer. But while much of her experience then was couched in poetic language, Exorcism is blunt and unrelenting. Much like Mount Eerie’s 2017 album A Crow Looked At Me, which saw Phil Elverum write with devastating plainness about the death of his wife, the often very literal nature of Wilson’s language belies the efficiency and eloquence required to translate such a distressing experience into coherent and appealing song. Because, once you get past the initial shock, Exorcism is a hugely enjoyable record, not just for its riveting frankness, but its sonic palate too: the opening tracks pulse with cold anxiety, while later songs that tentatively suggest healing see Wilson assemble warmer layers of sound. A masterclass in catharsis, Exorcism finds a chink of light in the gloom.
Continue reading...by Rachel Aroesti via Electronic music | The Guardian
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