by Myles Tiessen (@myles_tiessen)
Webb Chapel's new song, "Springtime," unravels like a gothic tale. Set in a graveyard surrounded by corpses, our narrator lives in service to the deceased, tending the flowers and caring for the tombs of the dead—laboring for those with no hope for reciprocity. For years, Webb Chapel has operated as Zack Claxton's creative outlet, but now, for the first time, a troupe of musicians has entered the studio reimagined as a band. "Springtime" is the first of its kind for Webb Chapel, bringing the DIY grit into the slickness of a recording studio.
Rachel Gordon takes the lead vocals on "Springtime," a non-fictitious track that recounts her days as a grave gardener. One day a blank gravestone with the name Mary Brown caught Gordon's attention. No other information sketched on the stone except "Wife of Arthur Brown" turned this anonymous woman into an even further enigma. The almost dehumanizing minimalism of the gravestone stood in contrast to the abundance of life found in the flowers at the base of the grave. Gordon couldn't help but poeticize the scene.
Despite its gothic nature and sound, 'Springtime' is a unique blend of darkness and light. It's not macabre or horrific. The narrator's connection with a deceased stranger is a reminder of the beauty of mutual exchange and the possibilities for connection during and after life. 'Unnamed/I love them just the same,' sings Gordon on the track.
Backed by rolling, thunderous drums and legitimately hypnotic guitar interplay, the track's sound reaffirms the mysterious nature of the theme. The song opposes the familiarity of typical chords, melodies, or structures with a grainy, non-conformist, almost impressionistic interpretation of art-punk music. 'Springtime' creates an atmosphere of intense suspense and queasy unrest. The raw, immediate sound, heavily inspired by the 80s No Wave or underground punk of the same era, is fast and dynamic but also lies thick like a heavy fog at midnight on a ghoulish Halloween.
Webb Chapel's upcoming album, World Cup, is set for release on September 6 via charity label Strange Mono. Listen to "Springtime" here: