Atlanta-based new wave/post-punk alchemist Picture One has shared Love Spell, which is the second new single lifted from their new album, ‘Across The Depths of Seven Lakes’ (out April 3rd via Deanwell Global Music, Bandcamp pre-order). Listen to the single via YouTube below.
You can also stream Love Spell here: https://fanlink.to/LoveSpell
The lyrics in the pulsing synth-pop track are a metaphor for wanting to do something proactive when you feel like things are out of your control, which is eerily prescient considering the existential threat that’s affecting all of us from this pandemic. The spell itself is more of a symbolic gesture and serves as the conduit to help you get where you need to be emotionally, and the song concludes that true love in a more universal sense can be found when you learn to let go, rethink, and transcend.
Self-produced by frontman Thomas Barnwell, the motifs on Picture One’s new album navigate transcendence, resolve, magic, and creativity, as well as exploring the sometimes stormy waters of love and loss. The music itself breaks through the often dark backdrop of the lyrical content, with a dance-y and self-aware 80’s synth-pop vibe accentuated by chilly post-punk soundscapes. Throughout the record (including the icy lead single Cycle of Belief – which is out now), Barnwell fuses bright neon-soaked new wave accents and splashes each cosmic arch with a power-pop kick. ‘Across The Depths of Seven Lakes’ is crisp, cinematic, and surprisingly accessible and poppy, given his previous sonic propensity of leaning into darker instrumental coldwave territory.
Barnwell electrifies with hook-laden analog synth melodies and an equally-incisive vocal sound, which draws on his predecessors’ influences while maintaining a unique approach. While his production style has a purposefully otherworldly quality, there is something innately grounded that seamlessly threads each piece together. This is an album that is aware of the mercurial nature of personal tragedy, which can simultaneously appear both as dark impassable chasms, and as small puddles that can be easily splashed away. These songs invite us to explore and question this dichotomy at every turn without denying either the pain of everyday tragedies nor the miracle of the very human ability to overcome.
