Jagged and juddering whip cracks of pure power prickle against the speaker with such scintillating force that it leaves a tingling sensation that lingers long after the track is done, this is raw pure electricity and it feels divine.
Gabrielle Ornate is somewhat of a Yack Magazine mainstay at this point, we have covered the kaleidoscopic ‘Spirit Of The Times’, the explosive of ‘Rewrite The Rules’, and the epic ‘Free Falling’. With every release we dig deeper into the primordial powers that fuel this powerfully empowering sound, and so it is no surprise that this might be our favourite yet.
Nine Lives smashes into existence with feral fervor, the guitar is already wailing with industrial menace, the vocal vamp twirls majestically in the maelstrom, the drums pound and punch with groove and gusto. The intro is a vicious and visceral hook, it drags you in with a barbed ferocity unafraid to draw blood.
This is how you start a track, like you mean it, take the listener straight to the pulsating heart of it. The cathartic chaos of the intro fades phenomenally into the first verse where we are gifted this gratuitously groovy little riff on the lead guitar that wiggles and wriggles with a salacious sashay through the core of the track. This builds and grows in strength through the pre-chorus, which has this almost theatrical tease to every line and lick that wouldn’t be out of place on Broadway. Well primed and ready for intergalactic travel the chorus kicks in explosively with rocket fueled force and jettisons the track into cosmic orbits.
Just after the second chorus the intro is brought back as a bridge, which leads further down the rabbit hole into an instrumental freak out that tugs at all the various riffs, licks, tickles, and lines that have come before Tearing apart the beautiful soundscape that came before and reweaving it. In this echo, recall, and rewrite, you can hear the themes, melodies, and callbacks to what came before born again and made anew. Not only does it stop the track from becoming formulaic or stale, but it also mirrors and matches perfectly with the central lyrical core of the song.
Honestly, the overall composition and evolution of the song is breathtaking in scope and stature. The journey it takes you on goes from mountain peak to ocean floor, it is epic in the truest sense of the word and would leave anyone with the ear for it reeling from the rhythmic ride. But this speaks nothing of the passion of the playing, and the emotive electricity of Gabrielle Ornate‘s ethereal and epic voice. Because while the song is expertly constructed, that isn’t what leaves it stuck in your head and heart.
The guitar on this track is fiendishly good, and it feeds on every raucous riff to grow in stature to become a roaring monster by the time the first chorus kicks in. This marries perfectly with Ornate‘s ravishing performance which teases with its softer tones before cascading into the stratosphere with its passionate peaks. Lyrically it is a song that offers the listener a friendly shove into the crystal chrysalis that will birth the most bodaciously badass version of themselves. A metamorphosis message made music, and we could all use a little help sprouting wings.
