"Do you feel better / Looking the other way / Hide up in your penthouse / As we go up in flames..."
The double edged potent bloodletting and depressive grip of "Thoughts & Prayers", by the forever youthful starry eyed Costa Mesa- California indie rockers Widows Gold, is full of sonic beauty, crushing pain and retrospection, and teeth clenching resolve. It moves like a calculated defiant walk, against dark sadness and the sharp pain of being stabbed in the back repeatedly. The sparse power is it's power. Alex Oñate's shuffling drum beat and Ian Zamora's massive magnetic bass line draws you in instantly, as a framework for Ben Sauer's multi-dimensional guitar sounds that move from pearly guitar picking to sharp heavy power chord shifts. The emotional lead is the entire sound but it is spearheaded by Madeline Star's vocal countenance, a mixture of numb pain and tears, cries for help and questions floating up into the ether.
The seeds of this track, the seeds of malcontent and fury for changes are unknown but in light of recent events where a lot of us, including myself, feel like we have been kicked in the teeth by those who have grown up on a diet of scape goating, of fear of the other, of being so grifted and gaslighted that they literally don't know right from wrong, empathy from victimology, that they would gleefully vote for a racist, rapist, grifter, fascist into one of the most powerful positions in the world still gives me a stomachache. Don't even get me started on the Billionaire class and the problem with the "bro" culture.
I apologize that I seem to politicize every other music review lately.
LINER NOTES (bracketed):
["Thoughts & Prayers" is a condolence as hopeless as the atrocities it aims to silence. This track grieves the harsh reality in which we live. Those appointed to protect are the very hands strangling your rights.]
Do you feel better
Looking the other way
Hide up in your penthouse
As we go up in flames
Put our lives in their hands
They should be our heroes
It’s all a ruse
You turned me into the fool
It’s all a ruse
It’s all a ruse
You wouldn’t take a bullet
But you’d take it to the bank
Wash your hands with thoughts & prayers
But they’re already stained
Put our lives in their hands
They should be our heroes
It’s all a ruse
You turned me into the fool
It’s all a ruse
It’s all a ruse
You bend and break all your rules
You turned me into
You turned me into
It’s all a ruse
It’s all a ruse
Looking the other way
Hide up in your penthouse
As we go up in flames
Put our lives in their hands
They should be our heroes
It’s all a ruse
You turned me into the fool
It’s all a ruse
It’s all a ruse
You wouldn’t take a bullet
But you’d take it to the bank
Wash your hands with thoughts & prayers
But they’re already stained
Put our lives in their hands
They should be our heroes
It’s all a ruse
You turned me into the fool
It’s all a ruse
It’s all a ruse
You bend and break all your rules
You turned me into
You turned me into
It’s all a ruse
It’s all a ruse
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/widowsgold
https://www.instagram.com/widowsgold/
https://www.widowsgold.com/
https://widowsgold.bandcamp.com/track/thoughts-prayers
Widows Gold was founded by power couple, Madeline Star and Ben Sauer, during the pandemic. Star's commanding vocals feature poignant lyrics perfectly offset by jangling guitar riffs and melodic bass lines – a sound both nostalgic and refreshing. The band independently produces, records and mixes their own music. They pride themselves on a sound that seamlessly translates from the studio to the stage.
Widows Gold was founded by power couple, Madeline Star and Ben Sauer, during the pandemic. Star's commanding vocals feature poignant lyrics perfectly offset by jangling guitar riffs and melodic bass lines – a sound both nostalgic and refreshing. The band independently produces, records and mixes their own music. They pride themselves on a sound that seamlessly translates from the studio to the stage.
"Thoughts & Prayers", 80's music, 90's music, alt pop, alt rock, artful cool, california, Costa Mesa, indie rock, Madeline Star's evocative vocal countenance, post punk, power pop, Widows Gold, politico pop,
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