There’s not really much that’s reminiscent of a lullaby about ‘I Am Slumber‘ which is taken from Mallory Chipman’s new album ‘Songs To A Wild God.‘ Rather, the singer – half of The Goddamsels – quite stridently, after an initial acoustic introduction, lays out the myriad sides to her character, leaning particularly into aspects of nature for her metaphors. The song pulls on two urges Chipman felt when making the album – to celebrate nature and to be true to her musical feelings, as she feels that too often she has compromised. As Chipman explains: “I used to try to fit myself into a box. I would constantly ask myself, what would be most marketable? Will the audience be confused or rejected if I hop from genre to genre? Will people roll their eyes if I sing over and over about what I believe in? In the making of this album, I learned that I am a product of my influences—and that’s not something to escape, but rather embrace. I have felt myself become liberated from industry expectation and free to journey wherever the art takes me. That’s why I believe this album to be my best work yet.”
The results are a dramatic vindication of the approach – ‘I Am Slumber‘ is gutsy whilst also placing itself with enthusiastic abandonment into the longer tradition of the great singer-songwriters. You know which Canadian we’re thinking of. And Mallory Chipman is right – it takes that leap of faith in yourself to get to music that matters. Of course there’s always the risk of falling flat, but if you don’t even try then it isn’t art. Wow, aren’t we pretentious today?
