Alexa Dark - 'Villian'
Chronicling her antagonist origin story, Alexa Dark drops ‘Villain’.
Alexa Dark started out by performing live in London and is Spanish American multi-talented singer-songwriter. She wrote her own songs and poetry from her young teenage years, which built the songwriting repertoire that she stuns us with today. Her persona in her songs strikes as a dark femme fatale, striking and unique.
‘Villain’ lays bare the origins of her new era, highlighting that there are many sides to the same story. Soulful piano chords lead into the opening of Alexa Dark’s song. Moody eclectic key changes lead us through her dark reasoning. As she sings about the changes within herself but is unable to stop them.
“So I’m crossing my fingers behind my back.”
Her lilting low vocals immerse you into a Bond-like world where the protagonist can’t help but feel a luring pull towards the female villain. The mesmerising stripped-back track leaves you helpless but to go along with her self-sabotage.
To the listener, she’s honest about her true intentions and with a nod to “Paint it black” by the Rolling Stones. Each verse builds to another revelation to the reasons why she is did what she did, and how she isn’t sorry for it.
She laments how she didn’t get the role she wanted in this story and feels cheated, by the downcast lyrics.
The theme of the song, which has been done in almost every genre in the music industry, is break-up blues. Break-up anthems come in all shapes and sizes, mournful, hopeful, bittersweet, regretful and angry. Alexa Dark’s song falls in line with the latter, as she seems to blame her ex-lover for giving her the role of the villain, and bemoaning him for not giving her the title of the hero instead.
The song is written in a cinematic way, giving the song structure and a strict beginning, middle and end. It’s clear that her influences are heavily film noir, from the black and red picture on the album giving French New Wave Cinema. Her 60s influences also come through, which are said to be many, from Nancy Sinatra to Portishead.
“It’s too dangerous to fall in love, but you can’t hurt me now,”
The entire storyline of the song, leaks intrigue and mystery, as the whispers towards the end of the track suggest that she may have done something worse than what she alluded to, but you’ll never know.
Words by Thandie Grant
