PVRIS
Death of Me
Reprise/Warner
Alt-pop powerhouse PVRIS have exploded back on the scene with their electric new single Death Of Me, an unapologetic taste of the trio’s change in sound and the beginning of a new era. Following PVRIS’ sophomore album All We Know Of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell being released back in August of 2017, the band have remained quiet, but it’s clear now that any amount of time would have been worth the wait; Death Of Me is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
Death Of Me breaks free from its musical predecessors yet holds tightly to the darkness that has always encompassed the project. Frontwoman and primary creator Lynn Gunn takes her talent for production to an impossibly higher level with co-production from JT Daly (K Flay), the track heavily synth-driven and digitally percussive.
Lyrically, Gunn is straightforward and plainspoken, a deviation from her past metaphoric tendencies. She opens with, “this love is like a loaded gun, a noose around my neck or a sweet poison/ If it gets in the wrong hands then we’re fucked.” Listeners’ attention is commanded from the first drop, the energy so high and consistent that there’s hardly a second to breathe before you’ve reached the end, left shaken and ready to go again. Vocally, Gunn is teasing and deliberate, though a little more restrained than in past works. Her tone, still forever enticingly unique, creates natural dynamics – but nothing hits as hard as the chorus; it grabs you by the throat and makes you desperate to move. Death Of Me is a dance track coated in a heavy alternative flavour. Genre blending has always been a hallmark for the group, but it seems they’re ready to push the boundaries even further.
Death Of Me is beyond is exciting. It signifies the beginning of something entirely new, something seductive and uncontainable – something dangerous.
CAITLIN NORRIS
