Back in May we wrote about Runaway, an EP from Vancouver-based artist Kylie Van Slyke, AKA Kylie V. A self-described purveyor of “overemotional indie folk rock,” Van Slyke used the release to “capture the joys and angst of young life,” as we put it in the preview. A style typified by the title track which “cast[s] its eye over the trials of falling in love after one too many burns, and how romance can be curdled by the presence of anxiety and OCD.”
Today sees Kylie V return with ‘Anomaly’, a brand new single which builds upon the foundations of the EP. With help from Josh Eastman (bass, keys, synths, additional guitar), Tegan Wahlgren (violin) and Jess Jones (drums), Van Slyke weaves a picture of a break-up in all of its weight. Stark and tender tones exist side by side, the competing desires to go back and move on marbling into complicated patterns. The wish to do things differently, to make amends, to experience reconciliation or never think of the past again. The vocal range has long been a key facet of the Kylie V sound, and here it is utilised to capture such an ambiguous situation, as evocative in a near whispered hush as during the impassioned refrain.
I wanna build this from the ground up
I wanna be forgiven
I want you to see me
we could have been an anomaly
