Day 32 (April 20): Anna Calvi - Don't Beat the Girl Out of My Boy

Anna Calvi: Hunter Album Review | PitchforkOkay. Self-indulgent one month celebration out of the way. Now I have to write about music again. Songs. Songs? Songs. I can do this.

Some songs are impressive because of their overall construction, and how they cumulatively build up an effect that only fully becomes apparent once you're done. Some are impressive because of particular guitar solos, or a memorable lyric, or some tasty synth.

Today's song of the day is impressive for many reasons, but there's one very particular one I'd like to pick out. "Don't Beat the Girl Out of My Boy", from Anna Calvi's 2018 album Hunter is a great, snarling song all the way through, but at two minutes and thirty-eight seconds, it really hits the jackpot.

At that point, Anna Calvi lets out a guttural scream. She holds this for forty seconds, modulating it up and down to the rhythm of the electric guitar, but seemingly never actually pausing for breath. Just when you think there should be nothing left in her lungs, she kicks the bellowing up a notch. And once it's done, she keeps whispering away with barely a break.

That, in my view, is art.


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