Life, while offering plenty of reasons to assume a positive mindset as of late, has managed to break me down, much of this notion due to conceding the effects of traumatic incidents that slowly eat away at my conscious and subconscious alike. At times I feel isolated in this private struggle, yet time and time again, comfort eventually comes from solidarity in one form or fashion. While Foreign Bloodshed seems to approach different emotional territory from what I find myself engaged in, Jordyn Lyric’s process of coming to terms with being wronged through avenues of anger, internalization, and rational hits mightily close to home.
Front-woman of the Philadelphia post-hardcore outfit Playgirl Mansion, Lyric abandons the communal ethos of her main project’s sphere in favor of a bedroom-recorded EP, a notion that makes Foreign Bloodshed all the more personal, both in concept and sound. Its atmosphere entails little more than guitar-work of the acoustic and electric variety, yet the resulting haze of reverb adds a depth that translates into both occasional warmth and a lasting, bitter sting. Lyric’s accompanying vocals, usually offered via the illusion of existing at a distance somewhere within the instrumental fog, bleed with exacting honesty from every note she hits and every approach she takes, whether it be the slight emo trappings on “thigh highs” or the singer-songwriter exhalation on album highlight, “balance.”
As alluded to before, her precise, poetic lyricism seems to deal with the after effects of a failed romance, the aforementioned “balance” finding her at her most candid; “I hope it haunts you when you fuck. I hope it keeps you wide awake. I hope you choke on every purposeful mistake.” While that vivid narration is echoed throughout Foreign Bloodshed as Lyric divers further into her audible portrait of heartbreak’s effects, I find myself clinging to its seemingly emergent conclusion, “violets.” It’s a bittersweet reevaluation that finds her questioning, “Why does she get flowers and I get bruises?,” but as she alludes to clarity in a newfound perspective, she provides a glimpse of the possibility to compartmentalize anguish, and in that, I find a glimmer of hope - hope to one day move on.
[Visit full site to view media]foreign bloodshed (bedroom EP) by jordyn lyric