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Hopeful Gray Clouds: On Love Won't Make You CryQuail Bell Magazine loves spotlighting new treasures in the music industry. The latest one is no different. The New Jersey native Chloe Baker — known as bitter’s kiss — is an emerging indie pop artist with a sizable cult following on social media. I was given the opportunity to experience bitter’s kiss’ tracks on her new EP. The artist has been compared to the likes of Sixpence and Regina Spektor. I started by listening to “Love Won’t Make You Cry”, which gave me the sense of a very promising voice still stumbling to find their music identity. The lyrics seemed to be typical of many emerging pop or indie pop artists lamenting over heartbreak and realization of what real love is supposed to mean. It struck me as a song conforming to a stencil of what heartbreak songs are supposed to sound like as opposed to pulling experiences directly from her own life, which would give it more personality. Of course, this is a typical route many artists go before they begin writing and singing about the themes that are more personalized and guided, like her unique take of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”. However, “The Rope” instantly changed my mind. Indeed, bitter’s kiss had a much more defined and sophisticated style than I had gathered from “Love Won’t Make You Cry” by far. Written for her devout cousin that took her life, bitter’s kiss examines the conflict of depression while also offering solace that the passed cousin is where she always wanted to be: with her loving God. The accompanying video shows bitter’s kiss in a white lace dress interacting with a small child playing with a kickball, perhaps alluding to the innocence of the cousin that has passed. Listeners are confronted by the harsh truths of whether or not today's religious leaders have the crucial empathy and understanding bitter's kiss has found at such a young age, particularly in the lyrics, “I have sat through your church service / Listening for a word I could embrace / Staring into the preacher's eyes / Searching for the soul behind the face.” Later in the video, the camera pans away to follow the kickball which is picked up by bitter’s kiss. By the end of the video, she has changed into a black lace dress, the child has disappeared, and the chair has overturned. The eerie imagery within the church alludes to the chilling lyrics, “Do your angels keep you waiting? / How much longer can you cope? / There's a quicker way to heaven / If you can find yourself a rope.” Overall, the song is a refreshing message of great empathy, a power of reflection, as well as haunting, but not grotesque. Like bitter’s kiss’ other original songs, there is just enough light to focus on through the melancholy. In short, bitter's kiss combines two elements that may seem taboo to mix and challenges it, a trait that will lead her to bigger success in the near future. You can follow bitter’s kiss on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. You can stream her music on SoundCloud. #Real #MusicReview #BittersKiss #Melancholy #IndiePop #EmergingArtists Visit our shop and subscribe. Sponsor us. Submit and become a contributor. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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