Caleb L'Etoile and the caged lust for life and lust for life's end of "Death Rattle"

 

"I want you in black and crimson / I want to feel the weight against my spine / I want to be the only person / You think could fix your entire life..."

The caged lust for life and lust for life's end of "Death Rattle" by Virginia artist / producer Caleb L’Etoile feels like the sonic equivalent of driving on a dusty choking road straight for a cliff. Absorbing the lyrics, burnt and exasperated like my 12 year old self who has just had his heart broken by a 14 year old and not being able to handle her smiling face feels complex and anxious in a psychic bipolarity, like drowning in a pool of ignorance and immaturity. In the end, maybe, hopefully, "Death Rattle" is merely a fever dream that you wake up soaking in sweat. Maybe the stuff of a new genre entirely: fever dream pop.  

The unrelenting pace and the darkness like an opaque heartland rocker, like the Killers without a god makes this track the stuff of an A24 horror flick while at the same time being a deeply romantic / drunken Los Campesinos! song. There is no way to really review this track. It is the kind of song that is better just on display, loud in closed cup headphones as you read the lyrics and attempt to sing along. 

Read on brothers and sisters:    

I want you in black and crimson

I want to feel the weight against my spine
I want to be the only person
You think could fix your entire life
I want to build a circle around you
I want to draw white sigils on your skin
I want to hear how the moon light calls you
When you let it in (You let it in)

I want to be the river around you
I want to fill your lungs and shut your eyes
I want to be the only person you
Know could wreck your entire life
I want to find that holy fire
I want to see you dancing deep inside
I want to see your black blood pulsing
Want it to drown me be my guide

I want you to be
The end of everything

Deep from the center came a horrible sound
To remind us how our bodies are all destined for ground
And earth, sediment without sentiment
Mortal coils always to trying to find out where their tails went
And I said and I meant and you went
Like snow in the sun in the pocket of a car’s dented hood
Yea we were never better than good
The whole time we were better than the shoulds
And the coulds and I would wait for days pacing tracks
I had made, digging ruts in the places where our bodies had laid
Looking for some sign of your frame
in the skies and the lights like a secret I’ll take to the grave
So lay me down give me full consumption
Burrow out the hollow leave a bed for the weeds
Light a candle and say my name enough times
I’ve been waiting in the bardo and
We’ve many rivers left to weave

I want you in black and bone white
I want to find what’s sleeping deep inside
I want to you to be the only person
I know could end my entire life
I want to fall like a leaf in winter
I want to hear my name mixed with your lies
I want to hear how the blood moon calls us
Want it to drown us be our guide

-Robb Donker Curtius

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0NwTV6EiLB5dmoACLvXa24

https://soundcloud.com/calebletoile

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC14ZQ6F7cdT0Y4ITrTtiokQ

https://calebletoile.bandcamp.com/track/inverse-living

https://www.instagram.com/calebletoile/

https://www.facebook.com/caleblet0ile



Caleb L’Etoile is an artist/producer from Virginia who paints vivid portraits of life's rawest moments through cathartic, dance-fueled anthems that sit somewhere between the edges of pop, indie rock, and electronica. His clever, poignant lyrics and evocative vocals are the heart of each song, unraveling and reflecting our shared human experience with wit, familiarity and revelatory moments of heartbreak and intrigue. He is 5’9”, thinks about dogs way too much, and probably just said ‘fuck’.

Los Campesinos!

Caleb L'Etoile, Virginia, artist / producer / musician, "Death Rattle", indie rock, celebration rock, Americana, psycho pop, fever dream pop, alt rock, abstract rock, beat poetry,