Installment #25 in Monolisticle's Ongoing Campaign Against the "Internet of Endless Listicles."
Like wading into a pool filled with synth, ambience, and the plodding pain of romantic loss, the song “Hall of Horrors” by Teen Ravine envelops you inch-by-inch until you’re fully submerged in its irresistible melancholy.
Although it came out more than three years ago, the song by the Toronto-based band hasn’t received a ton of attention.
Which is unbelievable.
Because this song is wonderful. Soulfully sad, but wonderful.
It’s one of those overlooked, bypassed, off-the-radar songs that we at Monolisticle feel compelled to call out. For whatever unjust reason, the song faded into the deep shadow of mainstream (and even alternative) hits with deeper marketing pockets, ubiquitous distribution, and incessant focus on the next-new-next-thing.
But that’s our current music industry reality. There are so many songs out there, hidden in the most obscure regions of the World Wide Webernet, that many good songs—and even brilliant songs like this one—never get heard. And thus never get their rightful due.
The song's jazzy lounge beat is almost too cool for the lyrics, but that is exactly what enables it to sneak into your heart and wrench it note-by-note without your being aware of its intrusion. Until it’s too late. The music video for the song, directed by John Smith, is equally alluring, mesmerizing, and haunting.
Although the song is distinct from the work of Beach House, Grimes, Mazzy Star, Air, The Sundays, and Cocteau Twins, its haunting ethereal beauty hooks me in much the same way. In Richardine Bartee’s review on Grunge Cake, she wrote “As I listened to the single, for some reason, I couldn’t get Sade out of my mind.” I absolutely agree. It’s not that the song sounds like a Sade song, but that it makes you feel like a Sade song–particularly, for me, the song “Haunt me” from Sade’s Stronger Than Pride album.
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According to the band, they “tried to capture the disorienting feeling of lying in bed drunk as the room spins.” Which, without question, they achieved. The song swirls unstably in a melodically-inebriated vortex, perfectly capturing that feeling of helplessly yearning for the return of a relationship that’s hopelessly unsalvageable.
“Pick up the phone.” “I miss you.” These are the words of someone whose heart has been annihilated. Let’s hope he eventually found love again—one that could repair his heart in equal measure.
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