Spitting Blood Over Red Lipstick Stains

Alexandra Savior “Bad Disease”

Alexandra Savior belongs to a long tradition of torch singers, but the sound and lyrical concerns of “Bad Disease” place her in the overlap of a Venn diagram of Portishead and Lana Del Rey. I know it can read like a backhanded compliment to say an artist sounds like two others, but in this case I think you’d agree that it’s both accurate and high praise. Savior’s composition hinges on a slowly crawling bass line that’s both sexy and spooky, and filled out with an understated but potent level of atmosphere on the treble end – just enough to feel cinematic, but not melodramatic. Her vocal pulls off a similar balancing act, with enough pathos in her phrasing so the campiness of her affect doesn’t fully overtake the song. But oh, the camp of it all really is a selling point, particularly as her lyrics describe a sexy but poisonous man in details that make him sound like Nosferatu with a neck tattoo and a leather jacket.

Buy it from Bandcamp.