Between The Evil And The Saint

Lia Ices “Hymn”

Lia Ices’ voice is slightly blurred by reverb in this song, like the audio equivalent of when your finger accidentally smudges the ink as you write with a pen – you can make out the words, but you have to look through that smear for the bolder forms beneath it. I don’t mean to give the impression that this is some sort of shoegaze thing, it’s very much a piano-based singer-songwriter sort of song, but this effect renders Ices’ vocal performance in a way that places all emphasis on the feeling in her tone and phrasing than in her words. It’s a good production decision, one that gives the song a bit of extra ambiance without making it too “vibey” and puts a focus on the raw sentimentality of the music rather than nudge the listener towards a more literal interpretation based on words. If anything the lyrics verify the feeling of the song, which I think anyone can intuit is about a deeply felt love that’s nevertheless tangled up in the complications of life.

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