Glass Heart String Choir - 'Affliction'
With ‘Affliction’, Glass Heart String Choir wear the melodrama on their sleeves that we all feel as human beings.
Vocalist Ian Williams is an immediate powerhouse, his words soaring effortlessly over Katie Mosehauer’s showstopping instrumental. Every lyric begs to be heard, and for good reason. Williams’ lyrics are pure poetry, waxing on the importance of being one with earth as opposed to stealing from it the way mankind has now for so long. One line in particular finds him facing a familiar existential standstill that we have surely all faced: “Our lifetimes are flickers, just ripples in streams / Just the light behind eyelids, just brief little dreams.”
The most notable element of the track has to be the way that Ian and Katie play off of each other’s strengths. Just as the chorus kicks in, the ascending strings and the transition from fingerpicked guitar to strumming lead us delicately into Ian’s beautifully belted vocals. With the resemblance to Jeff Buckley and Radiohead’s most cinematic anthems, Glass Heart String Choir’s ‘Affliction’ is a much-needed addition to our emotional therapy routines on the rainiest of days.
Words of Curtis Saunders