Yowler – The Offer (Stream)
by Steven Spoerl
Three months in and a handful of arresting, tragic songs have already crept out of 2015. None of them have been as emotionally devastating as the title track to The Offer, the debut of All Dogs and Saintesenca‘s Maryn Jones’ solo moniker, Yowler. Few moments last year gave me chills as fierce as when Jones revisited “Leading Me Back to You” as an epilogue to an interview I had the good fortune of conducting for The Media. In some ways, that performance was a slight betrayal of the icier, more ambient-laden terrain that Jones would be visiting with Yowler. As a glimpse ahead, it was enough to freeze blood. “7 Towers” and “Water” both indicated a natural progression of Gift., the last record Jones would release while using her own name as a moniker.
Even with the startling clarity of “7 Towers” and “Water”, it’s difficult to be fully prepared for “The Offer”- and easy to see why the first official Yowler release would take on the song’s name. Gently picked acoustic guitar, an unbelievably gorgeous piano figure, and eerie, layered vocals transform this song into something genuinely haunting. It’s a song that opens with a shadow, closes with stillness, and reverberates long after its hushed close, bringing to mind the dynamics of Elliott Smith and the raw emotion of Marketa Irglova’s most melancholic moments. Spellbinding beyond reason and crippling in its wounded vulnerability, “The Offer” is less of an actual offer and more of a warning: tread lightly, there’s broken glass here that’s yearning to reach out and cut.
Listen to “The Offer” below and pre-order the release from the increasingly formidable Double Double Whammy here.
Heartbreaking Bravery 
[…] Offer‘s devastating title track is one of the only standalone songs to have earned a write-up on this site so far this year. The […]
[…] at The Empty Bottle – 2/28/15 (Pictorial Review) HB443: Kodakrome (Demo Review, Stream) HB444: Yowler – The Offer (Stream) HB445: First Quarter Songs, Pt. 1 (Mixtape) HB446: First Quarter Clips, Pt. 1 HB447: First Quarter […]
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