“Am I gonna make it?”, asks Cynthia Angelica in the opening moments of her debut single “Grace”. The Maryland based spiritual pop musician finds herself at a personal crossroads of doubt as she pleads to “fill my heart with faith”.
Driven by an echoing piano while borrowing synthesized elements of pop, this is a song that deeply yearns for a moment of solace in this contemporary moment of extreme tensions that have tightened into a tangled mess of knots. By keeping the messaging accessible and drawing energetically, as opposed to textually, on her faith, Angelica manages something deeply connective that is more interested in making space for healing than anything else.
The beautifully stacked harmonies throughout the song harken to elements of church choirs which gives the experience of listening to this song a grandiose sort of feeling that swells to dizzying heights. As the driving march of the drums presses the listener through the thick, viscous ephemera of this solemn introspection, there is a sense of comfort that peaks through suspended moments. Those parts where a syllable has been held so long that the textual meaning disappears, and purely distilled emotion remains.
This is a marvelous debut effort from Cynthia Angelica as an up-and-coming artist in the DMV area and sign of good things to come as we await her spiritual flame to flicker into musical action. If you are looking for vibrations that are both thoughtful and encouraging, then this song (and surely any future release) is a must-listen.
“Grace” is available today, Friday, July 22, 2022 on major streaming platforms like Spotify on Friday. Find this and more excellent music on the Alchemical Records Multigenre Mixture playlist on Spotify.
Charlie Maybee is a dancer, musician, educator, and writer based in Charleston, South Carolina who currently teaches with the Dance Program at the College of Charleston. His primary work as an artist is with his performing collective, Polymath Performance Project, through which he makes interdisciplinary performance art that centers tap dance as the primary medium of expression and research. He also currently plays rhythm guitar for the Charleston-based punk band, Anergy, and releases music as a solo artist under the name Nox Eterna.
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After AFI DOCS’s departure, the capital city once again has a documentary festival.
Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
