EP Review: Softcult - 'Heaven'
“What is heaven anyway?” is a question that surrounds the brand new EP by rising sibling duo Softcult. Looking to open up the truths and realities of the human experience, the twosome use their music to explore what it means to walk this world, live life, love how one wants and feel everything and nothing together. On Heaven, they bring the focus on how people who are concerned with what waits for them in the afterlife should bring themselves back down to Earth and concentrate on the here-and-now of living rather than the to-be-confirmed of dying.
A six-track release, they open with the first single release of ‘Haunt You Still’. A smooth, eerie-feeling track which brilliantly captures both Arn-Horn siblings’ strength; combining Mercedes’ soft and deep vocals with the professional and clean production at the hands of Phoenix. It’s a great sneak-peek of what was to come, and an ideal introduction to what is being set up to be a novel of an EP.
‘Spiralling Out’ is a standout track about the real frustrations of living with mental illness and how it can feel like a never-ending cycle that’s unbreakable. Even in the lyrics, Mercedes Arn-Horn is using the repetition of, “Over and over” to show how these vicious patterns will continually repeat themselves with no slowing down, no changes, and much of the time, no relief. With lyrics such as describing self-deprecation as “annoying”, its disguise of a smooth grunge-inspired instrumental almost makes the listener want to forget the scary context of the words. Maybe it would be a more blissful world if one could ignore the pain and anguish inside, but it doesn’t always work out that well.
The hardest hitting song is the closing title track. Turning the salvation and sweetness of heaven on its head, with Arn-Horn claiming that “God doesn’t love me” the way the object of her affection does and that “like a liar”, she feels set alight. The themes of fire and burning alive suggest a hint towards feeling more at home in hell than heaven - a sentiment many may share when disillusioned about the truth of the afterlife and what it means to end up there - but it carries the overall belief that heaven is never going to be a place or a belief. Heaven is wherever people feel it. It could be within their hobbies, their jobs, their friends or their relationships. Heaven is a person in most people’s eyes, and the Arn-Horn siblings are bringing that feeling to life with that grunge-shoegaze amalgamation that they’ve become known for and accustomed to over the years.
Softcult have never shied away from putting their near-philosophical thoughts and ponderings in their music. Sharing the ideas that they never would share in any other way, shape or form. Within the confines of Heaven, Softcult have managed to make their religious questioning and deepest darkest experience into beautiful blended art that can take their fans to the afterlife of their choosing.
Words by Jo Cosgrove
