Tracee Perrin utters nothing less than enrapturing words in a melodic whisper as we enter “Poison in the Water,” one of the five tracks that comprise her all-new EP The Clearing. A glaring undertow echoes the enunciation of every syllable, as wherever Perrin goes, it follows, staying within the shadows and offering us a sense of danger that is present from the moment we start to the second it’s all over.
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A groove tells us that there’s a lively glow just waiting to come alive on the other side of the first stanza, and when we descend into the unvarnished chorus we meet that beat for the very first time. This won’t be the only chance we get to connect with the essence Tracee Perrin brings to the table in The Clearing, but it may well be the most carnal. Much like its title implies, “Poison in the Water” wraps around us unexpectedly and attempts to suffocate us with its airy, deceptively subtle rhythm, only to leave just enough life in our souls for Perrin to have her way with us in “Wreck My Ship.”
“Wreck My Ship” begins in a glassy, reverberating dreamlike state that is quickly shattered by the appearance of Perrin’s smooth vocals, which seem to weave their way into the fabric of the music with a decadence that rivals anything you would find in the finest of art. Without any sort of warning, what first feels like a modestly textured arrangement is amplified to an otherworldly size, crushing us under the weight of its studious lumbering.
Perrin is in the center of all the action, but her serenading is unaffected by the modulating energy controlling the environment around her. She is confident, divinely aware of her lyrics, and able to find a place for herself within the context of all the big moments that are seemingly set to topple her place in the mix. The opening salvo of melodicism swells that make up the introduction to the title cut is steeped in an old-school neo-soul sound, but after a modest introduction, Perrin transports us to somewhere that is much more contemporary by design, if not outright futuristic in its wistful use of soft vocals and brutally mixed basslines.
As the beating heart of “Champion” retreats to the dark cloud of silent ambiance from which they came and the music in The Clearing comes to a poignant and jarring halt, the lingering cry of Perrin’s voice in the fever pitch of “Only Up From Here” remains. For only being a five-track extended play, this record craters anyone within proximity of its epic musicality with an emotionally charged, brilliant rendition of modern pop that goes against the grain of the mainstream in every sense of the term.
At no point does The Clearing start to lose steam or fall back on tired variations of themes within pop music that most of us would be happy never to encounter again. This is an original piece of music from a truly original artist who introduces herself to the masses here and doesn’t have to sacrifice any element of her songcraft to win us over completely.
Garth Thomas