Clementine Valentine - 'The Rope'
New Zealand sisters Clementine Valentine share another glimpse of their beautiful folk-singer art-pop with new single ‘The Rope’.
‘The Rope’ is the second of two singles released from Clementine Valentine’s upcoming album The Coin that Broke the Fountain Flour. The track flaunts the New Zealand sister’s talent for weaving new worlds with their harmonies.
The opening strings bind you to the ballad and you know within seconds that you will be held captive until they stop plucking. This sense of bewitchment and of a present but elusive power is what drives the piece and is what connects the sister’s to their familial folk music heritage. When discussing the folk elements in their songs the sister’s claim that it is known to them ‘on a DNA level’ and when you listen to 'The Rope’ this becomes very clear. It is a sound that pre dates the 1960s folk revival, it feels both old and new, a sound that has percolated through the generations.
The motif of ‘The Rope’ alludes to this connection between generations, however, there are more sinister connotations associated with this image that can’t be ignored. When the seductive voice that has guided you through the first verse breaks into the chorus it urges ‘without fear or doubt, blow the candle out’.
This ominous request is replaced by the echos 'We’re living here in stars’ and the dual voices extend beyond themselves compelling you to believe in the eternal. This offers an irresistible comfort, but a sense of foreboding is never far off and when the muffled drum strikes at the start of the second verse the pace quickens. A sense of time that did not exist in the previous verse’s cyclical guitar is introduced. Moreover, a sense of our time running out.
The tension between the old and the new, the eternal and the terminal is what is so beautiful and exciting about this single. The Coin that broke the Fountain Floor is set to be released on the 25th of August.
Words by Romey Kinsella
