With evasive fretwork and a fleeting dissonance in the melodicism directly behind her in the track, Psyclo constructs an intimate performance in her new single “I’m Not Lovesick” that might surprise a lot of listeners this February. Although this is hardly the first time this singer has put together something really moving and vocal-based, “I’m Not Lovesick” feels a little more fragile than her previous works have, striking out at us with a lack of excess that puts her aesthetics more in line with the chamber pop revival movement than it does anything else in the American underground.
Her voice is a sterling force to be reckoned with indeed, and coupled with the post-punk inspirations on the lyrical front in this song, it makes for an agent of evocation as indebted to dark pop conceptualism as it is a notion of new-age experimentalism endeared to a contemporary generation of notable female singer/songwriters. We hear her roar in this piece, but not to such an extent that she breaks up the delicate framework that comprises the better part of this single.
The bass is so light in “I’m Not Lovesick” that you’re likely to overlook its textural contribution to the song at lower volumes, but it’s important to the structure of this track just the same. There’s really nothing on the top or bottom ends of this single that feels unnecessary, and that includes cosmetic features within the harmonies that start with Psyclo’s singing. It’s true that her voice is the smoothest of all the elements in this mix, but the verses she delivers unto us are rather stern and self-aware to the point of sounding rather harsh.
Psyclo · I’m Not Lovesick (Official Music Video)
Live to love butStream/Download ffm.to/psycloProduced by Miles Napier, John WarrenWritten by Psyclo, John Warren, Miles NapierMixed and mastered by N…
Her introspections are unforgiving, and where others would compromise for the sake of creative fluidity, she’s willing to bend not one inch in this song. I admire her stability at the head of the arrangement, but it’s her assertiveness with the lyrics in “I’m Not Lovesick” that really wins me. She has absolutely no swagger when she’s singing here, but she doesn’t need it – her vulnerability is what the true star of this song is.
This is one crusher of a performance from Psyclo, and while I just got turned on to her music recently, I can tell that she’s only going to get better from here. There’s not a lot of resistance in her execution; just a flow that seems to release more and more emotion as we press on in the song, which isn’t something easily taught to an artist of any caliber.
What she has going for her in “I’m Not Lovesick” is an ability to honestly communicate with her audience and build something from the ground-up inside of a single, and as long as she doesn’t try to pose beneath the spotlight, it’s difficult to see her not rising through the ranks and establishing herself as someone destined to break out of the underground at some point in the future. This is a good building block, and definitely worthy of some critical praise.
Clay Burton