In times when a lot of the music industry is involved in the exploitation of women and femininity, a song that celebrates obvious and powerful feminine energy is a welcome and wonderful change. In her latest single, London based dark-pop artist Circe discusses summoning feminine energy over a strong, striking and evocative instrumental.
Singing “Bring her to me” in the chorus, Circe discusses how she calls feminine energy to herself in a climactic moment filled with dark synths and beautiful harmonies that create an impressive pay off to the build that was being created throughout the verse. The instrumental sound connects to the meaning of the song with how strong it sounds, as Circe has spoken about the single saying “an energy I think of as impossibly powerful and emotionally available. Femininity is in no way exclusive to being a woman, I think all genders and people can tap into it. Especially in songwriting; when a song flips your heart or wrenches your gut, I feel that energy is very present.”.
One of my favourite parts of the whole song was the brief mention of the moon in the lyrics at the first pre-chorus. Part of this was the melody working perfectly as a slow build into the chorus while being incredibly catchy. However, it was also that the moon is often linked with the idea of divine femininity, showing how much care Circe put into this song and its lyrics. It is a phenomenal demonstration of how the smaller details can show how much a song truly means to you.
Another part of this song that I could not go without mentioning was the fantastic instrumentation. The number of synths and electronic instruments that were layered on top of eachother to create a song where each section has something different makes ‘Undone’ an incredibly satisfying song to listen to. Even with the drum beat staying incredibly simple for the whole song, it remains interesting and never gets boring.
However, my favourite part of the instrumentation has to be the guitar that is contrasted over the electronic instruments. The guitar plays simple fingering parts on and off for most of the song until the bridge finishes and then what Circe describes as “A cowboy guitar solo over a hip-hop beat & dark synthy drops is exactly the sound I imagine when Boudicca rolled into the battlefield.” happens. It is something that you think would sound out of place, but it does not in this song, it actually fits perfectly and all of this contrast matches her ideas of femininity being for anyone and everyone whether they are feminine or not.
Overall this is an amazing single from Circe, from the instrumentation to the lyrics and their meaning. I hope she keeps this level of power and control over whatever her next endeavour is.