I got sent Morphelle’s track on a cold Sunday morning – over a champ of a breakfast, with my beautiful family, in a town where loved ones currently live, but also where some are buried – and it soundtracked the moment beautifully.
It’s not a whiskey wallower, but also not a lilting latte ladida. It sits in a perfect happy-sad focal center: where unrequitedness isn’t a period but a dash to something else, where a light drizzle is either a postscript to a much more diabolical storm…or a prelude to a dry, benevolent calm.
The track is called “Silhouette,” and it’s candy of the best imaginative sort: one that’s not necessarily in step with its author’s prosaic intent. “[It’s] about letting go of someone you love to keep life in harmony,” Morphelle says in an advance release, her tone ambiguous but also sporadically peppered with autobiography.
“Since ‘Silhouette’ is a sad song, it was kind of complicated to convey the feelings of the lyrics because it’s disguised as a fun pop song,” the young singer-songwriter adds, and you just nod in recognition.
There is, indeed, a veiled push-and-pull in here, a bittersweet quality also present in songs by Laufey, even beabadoobee, most certainly Clairo, whom she all acknowledges. It’s those same pangs of paradox that render all the lighthearted elements – the bossa hop, the perfunctory backbeat, the sing-song bassline – necessary foils to Morphelle’s wounded cherubic singing.
A self-confessed introvert with a performer’s natural charity towards expression, Morphelle charmingly admits to wanting to share “as much as possible” while also giving out “as little as possible.” That indecision is key to humanity and our existence as social animals, after all, much like how confessionalism is a double-edged blade.
That desire for release/escape, but also that pining for entry/inclusion. When she sings “Would you be fine if we don’t talk again?” she wields a steely resolve, but when she pleads “I would go with you if people weren’t watching,” she yields to uncertainty and collapse.
Beyond matters of lyricism and prosody, however, the musicianship behind “Silhouette” is a bit of a departure from the barebones style Morphelle is accustomed to in both writing and live shows. “I’m excited to keep growing and exploring this sound in my future music!” she says, tipping her hat to this humble little label for the nudge and assist.
As a person who’s paddled through both (solo and collective) rivers, I can personally confirm each has its own distinct ebbs and flows. Which is why I’m thrilled at the thought of her unearthing new idioms, new manners of collaborative arrangement, old artists worth reconsidering through new lenses – imagine a rabid Clairo fan embracing Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ like a new bible – and fresh ways of working.
But for now, we don’t have to leave everything to chance and imagination. Morphelle’s pretty “Silhouette” is out today. Enjoy it, share it, spin it during the waning, last-mile hours of a much-anticipated road trip.