Warpaint is one of those few bands that have mastered the elusive art of rocking really hard even when they’re not really rocking hard at all. If that statement doesn’t make any sense to you, listen to “Love is to Die” and you might understand what I mean. The first release from their long-awaited upcoming self-titled sophomore album, the song starts off with a slicing guitar lead-in followed a hazy, almost dreary, flood of a verse with softly-sung vocals from Emily Kokal. Her voice and the rest of the musical arrangement builds into the mysterious lyrics “I’m not alive / Call one, one, one” before Kokal confidently pronounces the contradicting chorus, “Love is to die / Love is to not die / Love is to live” accompanied by crashing drums. What are you telling us, Warpaint? Is love both death and life… or perhaps it is neither? Hauntingly deep stuff.
To clarify my original point a bit more, it’s a rather soft, lulling sort of song for the most part, but the ladies of Warpaint bring this undeniable feeling of visceral power to it that simply rocks. But again, I’ll let the song speak for itself. Warpaint’s follow up to 2010’s The Fool is out on January 21, 2014. Looking forward to more jams like this one.