I wasn’t sure about RIVER’s previous single, ‘I am cancer’. Partly because the premise of the song did appear to be a little convoluted.
Her comment about it was, “It communicates frustration around the inability to cure or hide an ugly mind stuck in false self-beliefs, believing it’s unworthy of true love.”
I still haven’t got my head around that and I was perturbed to encounter even more word salad with this attempt to explain ‘Infected Mind’ (verbatim):
“‘Infected mind’ is my attempt to recognise and engage in a dialogue with my younger, deceived self. It’s a passage between past and present, where forgiveness and separation can finally take place, simply by bearing witness to and understanding the harm I inflicted on myself out of ignorance. It reflects not only on the trauma of the past but also on the painful process of admitting how I’ve been deceiving myself – and ultimately surrendering to that deception in order to heal.”
Hm. Don’t look back in anger?
And, almost disappointingly, there doesn’t appear to be a resolution at the end. A healing. Despite her best attempts, she remains,
“So fucked up now/Got no place to hide/Ashamed to try”.
I have to say though that I am quite taken with her music. It is both easy and lazy for me to compare her directly to Mazzy Star but she’s got Hope Sandoval stamped all over her, in the nicest possible way.
She’s clever with the sound effects, too. ‘Infected Mind’ opens as if she’s being waterboarded and then switches to what might be an air raid siren.
That sets the scene for an almighty coming together of synthesisers, guitar and percussion with chords and drums especially reminiscent of M83’s ‘Outro’ and with the same degree of power.
The video, which stars RIVER and Elsy Heinberg and which was directed by RIVER, has, I assume, both her and her younger alter ego attempting a reconciliation in the darkened Stockholm suburbs, the earlier incarnation carrying the same blooded feet as in the previous video and I don’t think her bunions are playing her up.
I’m still trying to crack that one, too. As I said before, an intriguing artist with a very strong musical direction, but ideas which are perhaps just a little too outlandish for the average listener.
I very much hope I’ll be proven wrong on that.
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hernameisRiver
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hernameisriver/
