Martina Topley-Bird will soon release her new album Forever I Wait, which is preceded by her new single “Pure Heart.” The singer issued her debut album 28 years ago and has worked with a repertoire of artists to create her work, including Maxinquaye and Danger Mouse, and she has also collaborated with Diplo, Common, Gorillaz, Clark, Prodigy and Massive Attack.
The thrumming single opens with slightly off-key, mechanical blips and a warm and filling bass guitar lick, which continues for a few measures before Topley-Bird’s hypnotic and easy voice enters the mix. The song features her vocals overlapping upon one another dreamily, which makes for a lovely effect-verging on chaotic but subsiding just before that point. The artist’s voice slightly lilts over the continued bass and subtle, heavily manipulated guitar. Warbling mechanical sounds continue to light up the background of the track throughout various parts of the song. The song ends with all focus on the vocals for the phrase, “I’m not afraid.”
Of Forever I Wait, Topley-Bird said, “I had to recalibrate/reconfigure my way of relating to music and the music industry in order to make the record I wanted to make.…and that took time. And I took the time I needed. I started in London, moved and lived in America for the first time in my life, then briefly moved back to London and finished the record in Spain.”
The upcoming album is Topley-Bird’s fourth studio album, with her previous one released in 2010, Some Place Simple. The artist covered the XX’s song “Crystalized” along with Mark Lanegan in 2012, which was followed by music video the next year.
Before the pandemic hit in 2020, Massive Attack was set to perform both Best Kept Secret and Primavera Sound Barcelona.
Leave a Comment