Girl at the Rock Shows

I have written this review of ‘ULTRAVIOLET’ by Spectral Magnolia at least a dozen times. That’s over one thousand words written and rewritten repeatedly, and I still don’t think I’ve found a way to put all of my thoughts about this album into cohesive sentences. At this point, I owe this poor band a review, and I feel bad that it has taken so long. As I listen to this album for the umpteenth time, I realize that my first review is the one I should go with because it was my gut reaction. The problem is, I didn’t save my drafts. I’m scrubbing my brain, taking away all of my previous notions about this EP and starting from scratch. The magical thing about this album (and the reason it has taken me so long and so many rewrites to make this blog post come to life) is that, depending on your mood, this album can hit you completely differently. As mentioned in my last post, today has been a rough day, so let’s see how that changes how I hear this album.

‘ULTRAVIOLET’ opens with the shortest song on the album, “The River.” It admittedly takes a while for this song to come in, but before you hear the haunting vocals of Spectral Magnolia, they set the tone with ambient sounds of what I can only assume is a river. With this ambiance that kicks off the album and this song in particular, Spectral Magnolia does an insanely excellent job at taking you away from your day, regardless of how hard it was. At the same time, the tenderness that comes through their silky smooth vocals almost acts as a reassurance that today was just a day and tomorrow will be better.

Throughout “The River,” you can feel a buildup that leans into “Sweet Tears” in such an epic but unassuming way. This song is dark, but it doesn’t start off that way. Honestly, it starts off feeling a little whimsical and a little pop-leaning, but that doesn’t last long. You quickly feel the vocals shift to something much more sharp-tongued and angsty as the song takes a turn for something more gothic. I want to compare this to Evanescence, but that’s a bit of a cop-out. Truthfully, I just don’t know this scene well enough to give more examples, but I can tell you that I was captivated by the epic symphonic-metal-leaning instrumentation while Spectral Magnolia’s voice gave me a space to feel everything and nothing all at the same time.

The way that the vocals throughout this album dabble between something almost top-40 pop styled and something much darker is one of my favorite things on this album; you can clearly hear it in “The Lonely Ghost Beneath an Unmarked Grave.” The heartbreak felt in this song swirls with Spectral Magnolia’s signature darkness to create an eerie vibe that sounds like a haunting mist. Although a lyrics lady, I quickly realized, about halfway through this album, that although I was hearing the lyrics, I wasn’t feeling them. I was more lost in the steady piano in the background and the way it mixed with the booming other instruments, creating a multi-dimensional sound that took over my house like an inviting fog to get lost in after a rough day. You know, a place where no one can find you and where you can just sit in complete silence as you decompress from the storm of the day and wonder what in the heck you’re even doing. That’s right, people, this third song led me to my first mental breakdown of the album, and, based on the talent of Spectral Magnolia, I expect many more to come.

“Confessions of Torment” clears the fog in a way, but also leads to another rollercoaster ride of emotions. This song is the hardest-hitting one yet. The beat hit a bit harder, and the words cut through the instrumentation a bit easier. I finally spent some time listening into the lyrics of this song and, holy crap, to say they are epic as the actual sound of this song would be an understatement. They read like heartbreakingly beautiful poetry. Like how the overall style of Spectral Magnolia seems to dabble between pop-leaning and something much darker, I love how the lyrics tow the line between beauty and pain so perfectly. All of these contrasts are truly insane throughout this album, but really seemed to stand out on this song in particular.

“Part of Me” definitely gives you a chance to get super introspective with your life. Between the vocal style, the lyrics, and the return of that feeling of mist that I got from “The Lonely Ghost Beneath an Unmarked Grave,” this epic five-minute-long track was impossible to get through without a breakdown. The talent of the vocals throughout this album is insane, and I feel like that really comes into play when it comes to this song. Even if you can’t relate to the lyrics (although they are super relatable), you can relate to the pain that comes with some of the words and the disappointment you get from others. Truly a lovely showing of how you can make music into something that is felt, not just heard.

I swear I didn’t know that the next song on this album would be called “Hazy Dreams of Hell.” Although I have listened to this album time and time again, I really did try to wipe the slate clean in preparation for writing this review, so I found it almost funny that this song title relates back to the mist I had talked about previously. Although I definitely feel a mist from this song, it’s a bit brighter, like right before a rainstorm, rather than the fog as mentioned earlier, that you can just get lost in. There’s a sense of desperation throughout this song that builds and builds, making this song, alone, a complete journey and a fantastical one at that.

It wasn’t until “Constellations” that I realized the magic in the song titles on this album. I promise I’m not trying to be completely literal, but this song feels like space. There’s a booming echo that comes from the instrumentation while Spectral Magnolia’s voice seems to dance like twinkling lights in the sky. If you want a complete breakdown, go ahead and really pay attention to the lyrics of this song. Although overall it comes off as a powerful and not-too-sad kind of song, the lyrics of this track may be the most heartbreaking of them all. I mean, come on, lines like, “It’s alright being lonely if I can hear you sing” and “… but I swear you’ll find my heart somewhere on Mercury”. It honestly took me five times of listening to this track before I could move on because I just hadn’t gotten all of my emotions out the first four times and, even after the fifth, I’m not sure I was ready to move on but I was anxious to see how the journey of ‘ULTRAVIOLET’ ended.

‘ULTRAVIOLET’ ends with “Hyacinth.” I was expecting super dark and slow, but Spectral Magnolia decides to end this album on what I would call the most positive feeling track of the album. Don’t be mistaken, this song is still just as heartbreakingly dark and beautiful as the previous tracks, but it has a much more boisterous sound that feels like an arena show. There’s something about the tone of the drums in this song and the way they have a slight echo that makes you feel it in your chest even if your volume isn’t up all the way (although it should be because having the volume as loud as it can go will truly enhance this journey for you). “Hyacinth” stays oddly ambient even with that power, as mentioned earlier, making it the only way Spectral Magnolia could ease you back into the real world without some real trauma.

One of the first drafts I wrote for this review talked about how, although it was a beautiful album, ‘ULTRAVIOLET’ just lacked the sense of angst and edge that I tend to look for. One of the other drafts I had written about this album was about how this album leaned a bit too poppy and Evanescence-wannabe for me. Clearly, neither of those things crossed my mind during this listening session (other than the Evanescence thing, but I already told you my reasoning there). Music is a crazy thing. It can hit you completely differently depending on where your head is at at any given time, and tonight my head was in the perfect spot for Spectral Magnolia to come in, take it over, and win over my heart.

Long Story Short? Spend some serious time with ‘ULTRAVIOLET’ from Spectral Magnolia. If it doesn’t hit you one day, try again another because, eventually, this album will hit you as hard as it hit me. The blend of accessibility and gothic darkness is insane, but what really makes this album a stunner are the vocals that can only be described as Spectral Magnolia.

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