by Caroline Nieto (@caroline.nieto)
In his words, Federico Stock’s newest song is about “faith, really in anything.” “Paper Plate” is his third single ever released, a follow up to the indie folk tracks “Half Man” and “Little Cross.” “Paper Plate” is a meditation on the world’s fragility, a world where something as steady as the moon can be ripped up like a paper plate. In spite of this, the song is immovable, anchored by a warm, fingerpicked guitar that doesn’t let up until the song’s final seconds. The chords are an ever-changing exchange of tension and release, but they’re constant, omnipresent. Stock’s voice, too, acts as a steadying force, soft and low despite the gravity of the words he’s singing. His sound has the whisper-like quality of an Elliott Smith or Christian Lee Hutson, but Stock doesn’t give into mimicry. His voice smooths the weight of the words he’s singing—often heavy, sometimes blunt, like in the line “There isn’t much that’s so unsettling as fate.” But “Paper Plate” finds freedom in this unknown, refusing to lose itself in its own fragility. Little by little, the song expands through added background vocals and floating melodies so gentle they could be missed. Though much of the song takes place in darkness, the refrain puts this setting into perspective—the good, the bad, the faithless will “only last a moment.”