Born from a process of self-confrontation they liken to “a personal exorcism,” Wendy Eisenberg‘s latest album is the first deemed suitable or worthy of being self-titled. “As though,” as we wrote in an earlier preview, “[Eisenberg was] for the first time willing or able to put forward a halfway static vision of themselves within the maelstrom of change.” After a stellar batch of pervious singles, from honeyed folk number ‘Will You Dare‘, the David-Lynch-tribute-come-personal-reckoning ‘Meaning Business‘ and the blunt honesty of ‘Old World Dying‘, Eisenberg has now shared new track ‘Vanity Paradox’ ahead of the album’s release early next month via Joyful Noise Recordings.
The single is a fitting one. What might be the most direct exploration of the ideas underpinning the record, delving into the uncanny experience of identity, both in the ways in which it shifts and persists through all of life’s inevitable challenges. “Vanity paradox: I can’t see me clearly,” Eisenberg sings in a telling verse, “Marked too young / Undeserved / Tell me how it matters.” This uncertainty is central to the song. The realisation too much soul searching might prove counterproductive. The suspicion that outside validation is the only route to clarity. But in wrestling with these feelings across six intricate minutes, the song ultimately looks to transcend such feelings, serving as a reminder that some indeliable self remains through the course of a life. A sense of peace and authenticity within reach if only we allow ourselves to connect with it.
“Kind of an inadvertent epic, these lyrics came out in one wild puzzling chunk I’m still deciphering,” Eisenberg explains. “Mari told me it sounds like how anxiety feels, which shocked me but is ultimately just true. From what I can tell it’s about the ways we cope with existing among others, how it feels to want to be perceived as a good person by your friends, because your curiosity about yourself has, paradoxically, obscured you to yourself. It’s also about healing from trauma, specifically how the healing process brings you so close to yourself that you can’t see anything clearly, and so dazzled by the life surrounding you that you are stunned when you remember that you are the same person who experienced the trauma that got you here.”
Watch the video directed by Ruby Mars below:
Wendy Eisenberg will be released on the 3rd April via Joyful Noise and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.
Photo by Eleanor Petry