Bass, keys, a moderate string component and a glistening lead vocal – outside of these key elements, there isn’t much more comprising the new single “Barcelona Butterflies” from Leni Black, and while it’s only the first release we’ve heard out of the talented singer/songwriter’s camp thus far, it’s absolutely one heck of a statement if I’ve ever heard one before.
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/leni.black/
Espousing a narrative that has become rather popular in the past ten years given the ocean of millennial ‘backpackers’ that found themselves aimlessly wandering the world in the 2010s, Black’s foray into alternative pop would – on paper, at least – seem like a rather simplistic and prearranged release similar to scores of other songs out this fall, but if you think this is the case with “Barcelona Butterflies,” you haven’t listened to the track at all. The lyrics cut away from the predictable platitudes and mixed-bag of metaphors that so many neo-hipster musicians have taken to calling their own in favor of exposing a personality on behalf of this artist that I can only describe as deeply enchanting and spellbinding, and from an instrumental perspective, this single is a stimulating treat that somehow manages to touch on pop and post-rock territory simultaneously.
Trying to stay a minimalist in a year that celebrated excess like few others in recent memory likely wasn’t an easy task for Leni Black to undertake when she sought out the creative tools she’d need to make “Barcelona Butterflies,” but all the same, she brings enough of a stripped-down aesthetic to the arrangement here to compensate for her lush harmonies that occasionally run towards the indulgent. We get a great balance out of the keys and the vocal, but they’re always remaining dependent on each other as they construct the greater climax beneath the chorus.
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/leniblack
The percussion is expectedly subtle, with the bassline giving the groove all of the moxie it needs to move us along with our singer’s verse. Everything in this song is designed to highlight the vocal and its flexibility, even in what would otherwise be dire circumstances (mostly for crooners with a lesser skillset, mind you), and on every occasion she’s presented with, Black emerges from the battle between her voice and the ominous backdrop sounding exceptionally victorious.
I only just found out about Leni Black this October through her debut single and some buzz it’s started around the American underground and particularly the Boston scene she calls her own, but I can already tell that she’s going to be around in this game for a long time to come if she chooses. There are a lot of different ways she can grow as an artist and songwriter from here, but if I were in her position, I would try to focus on the elegance of the material offered to us in “Barcelona Butterflies” above all else. Her delivery is downright divine in a couple of spots here, and in 2020, heavenly harmonies in the pop genre are becoming awfully difficult to find.
Kim Muncie