Following the release earlier this year of Mercedes S, i Was Eros has returned with another dark brooding pop gem Year With a Stranger.
The British-born alternative artist never fails to deliver ambitious, distinctive and compelling tracks and the new one is no different. Year With a Stranger is yet another stylistic change for i Was Eros, utilizing an intoxicating amalgamation of contemporary electronic pop to conjure a superbly focused meditation on doomed love.
Not only is i Was Eros’ sonic permutations nuanced and unpredictable but his narratives are also similarly irresistible. As the artist divulged about the new track, ‘The song is about breaking up with someone and questioning if you ever knew them, and then realising that while you were with them you lost your own sense of identity and need to go and rediscover yourself’.
With the song containing lines that are marked as much by their directness as by their provocative power, such as the lyric in the pre-chorus, ‘There’s something that your mother said / Ever since, it’s not left my head / Hoping to God you’re an imposter / Otherwise, she’s “raised a monster” Year With a Stranger has a bite and sting to it that’s difficult to ignore.
‘There’s something that your mother said / Ever since, it’s not left my head / Hoping to God you’re an imposter / Otherwise, she’s “raised a monster”
The track explores the themes inherent in such a subject with intensity and a candid allure. And reflecting the track’s vivid lyric is the aural landscape in which it resides. A hypnotic series of rhythmic pulses underscores sparse and eerily evocative melodies and phrases and truncated instrumentation creates not only a very contemporary texture but one that is the perfect host to the vocal.
And with i Was Eros’ vocal dexterity now front and centre, his searing attitude now leaves one without a doubt that this emerging musical talent is evolving to become an important musical force in Australia.
Listen to Year With A Stranger on our Alt playlist once released: