Bewitched by Half Waif’s Future Joys [free Mp3]

“I’m attracted to the dark…I’m considering things I wouldn’t have when I had a heart,” sings Nandi Rose Plunkett on “Red Teeth”, setting the tone for Future Joys, the EP recently released by her experimental baroque project, Half Waif. Future Joys is an accidental ode to the darkness, but the lament’s beauty quickly outgrows the initial gloom. Plunkett’s graceful vocals transition in and out of ranges with oily elasticity, stylistically reminiscent of Bjork or O’Riordan of The Cranberries for their Celtic folk sensibilities. Plunkett’s own multicultural, urban background, though, lends itself most to Half Waif’s wide range of influences. Being classically trained, the songs have sophisticated arrangements at their core, but they’re blanketed in layers of airy, almost John Carpenter-esque synths (see “Eyes Are Closed”), making for a very eclectic, extremely tranquilizing sound, indeed.

Lyrically, Future Joys finds Plunkett exploring some very murky corners. Sentiments range from detached reflection (“Hey, I don’t miss you like I thought I would…”), to bitterness (“You drew my power out, like it was poison now.”), to desperation (“Come on, give me what I want. When you closed the fist, never felt like this before.”), to regret (“I’ve been a lonesome traveler lately, I’ve trusted not myself. Oh, I’ve been wrong, lately and all along.”) — all heavy themes that should be chilling, but are strangely warming.

Heavily atmospheric and disturbingly bewitching, Half Waif’s Future Joys is a celebration of darkness and grasping at shadows. Half Waif, however, uses the darkness fully to their advantage, taking the night and filling it with elegance and eerie allure that you’re going to want to hear for yourself. Download “Wooden Horse” for free above, then the rest of Future Joys (mastered by her friend Greg Saunier of Deerhoof) over at their Bandcamp page.