I covered this one on a whim and it ended up being the best investment ever.
Supporting her latest record, Devotion, Tirzah stripped her sound back even further from the dance tracks of her EP, I’m Not Dancing. Continuing to work with her long-time producer, Mica Levi, Tirzah’s performance mirrored the record in presenting things as they are. When performing the opening track from Devotion, ‘Fine Again’, there was so much to think about in what was just a synth and her vocals, like whether or not the vocal hitches or synth glitches and pauses came from a brief anxiety in confessing the emotions to the song’s subject. Even on ‘Glady’, the most traditionally-structured song from the album, her presence was raw and unguarded as her loud, soft voice best encapsulated what makes her lyrics so fit for this moment, “I don’t want/To sound so serious/ But you are taking me away from all this hate.”
Tirzah’s performance played off syncopation, giving it an unsettled, free-form feeling, with lyrics that evoked ambiguity of an illicit relationship or the birth, turmoil and death of a natural one. Even the lighting during, ‘Do You Know’ pushed the feeling of being slightly off-beat. Like with a warm and comfortable sweater – you are never totally aware that it’s on or doing it’s job. It’s only when you realise there is a hole or an unraveling thread that you become hyper-aware of it, the imperfections pulling more and more at your mind. In Tirzah’s case, these threads were intentional and it was this duality of an appearance of apathy and care in details pulled you in deeper.
the sounds in my head... 