David Fletcher
Check Out The Video For The Title Track Off The Goth-Rock Band’s Forthcoming Debut Album, Reminiscent Of The Genre’s ’80s Apex.
Welcome to Song of the Day, where we hip you to all the new local releases you should be caring about. By highlighting one new North Texas-sprung tune every week day, our hope is that you’ll find something new to love about the rich and abundant DFW music scene five days a week.
Rosegarden Funeral Party — “Martyr”
RIYL: ’80s nostalgia.
What Else You Should Know: In anticipation of their long-awaited, upcoming LP Martyr, Dallas dark wavers Rosegarden Funeral Party have released the title track as the album’s first single.
“This is our mantra: ‘How much love can you show,’” singer, songwriter and guitarist Leah Lane says, quoting an oft-repeated line from the single’s chorus.
Struggling with the balance between brutality and fragility, the song’s lyrics detail a love lost to turmoil wrought by emotional and physical abuse while simultaneously placing the speaker in a position of power: “Tell me what it looks like when the lights go out / When there’s no one else to lie to / When there’s no one else around.”
Sonically, the song is reminiscent of The Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees or really anything coming out of the English gothic rock scene from the ’80s. With its synth-driven undercurrent and scything guitar sound, “Martyr” stands on its own among the genre, and the video for the song pays homage to that scene as well.
Shot by Erin Shea Devany of All Hallows Productions, the video never takes its focus off of Lane, whether she is dancing in urban decay, a dark forest or in front of a backdrop of swirling visual effects.
But don’t call it a throwback. This is not your mom’s post-punk.
What separates “Martyr” from its forebears is its unabashedly hard-driving guitars leading into the song’s chorus, where synths disappear and all that remains is guttural passion.
When Lane cries “I’ve been a martyr for this / I would have broken every bone,” with all the force of the band behind her, she knows just as well as the audience — she doesn’t have to sacrifice herself anymore, and she never did.
Cover photo via Rosegarden Funeral Party’s Facebook.