A Freudian Masterpiece
Wila Frank takes her daring steps into the music industry with her new album Black Cloud. With this raw reflection on the darkness of the human psyche, Frank explores the complexity and vulnerability of selfhood. This album captures the confusion and uncertainty of humanity, and presents us with a picture of vulnerability, untamed honesty and revelation.
Frank’s fixation on darkness is evident from her first track, “Tonight.” Frank walks the fragile line between the beauty of mutual experience and reliance on a shared sense of loneliness. Amidst repeated guitar patterns and sultry vocals, Frank finds comfort in mutual pain. In speaking to an ambiguous subject, Frank is able to connect to her audience through feelings of solitude. The repetition of “Let me walk with you and we can both be lost” sets the tone for the rest of the album, wallowing and dwelling into the depths of the universal experience of loss and loneliness.
Frank intersperses angsty, layered sounds with acoustic light sound, exploring the multitudes of emotion. Songs like “Fire” and “Burning Up” feature heavy, chaotic percussion, eerie soundscapes and stronger vocals to mimic the outpouring and aggression of her emotions. These songs, alongside more isolated, acoustic tracks like “Ghosts & Guitars,” add a multiplicity to the emotion she describes throughout the album.
The use of intense, emotive imagery remains constant throughout the album. The title track, “Black Cloud,” features the opening images of a falling dove with metal wings, or a collar rung so tight the neck is stained with “war.” In this instance, Frank speaks of the constraint and restriction she feels in the seeming perfection and rigidity of the world around her, exposing the fragility of genuine emotion whilst exposing the hollowness of modern society. The title track sets a tone for the remainder of the album, riddled with these brilliantly intricate images. In incorporating such provocative, sometimes disturbing imagery throughout, Frank displays the unsettling instability of her mind.
Frank’s sound is consistently unique. Her sultry vocals, alongside eerily chromatic melodies and vocal clashes, create a chilling sense of darkness. This, alongside her intricate song-writing, paints a brutally honest picture of vulnerability, daringly unpacking the complexity of human emotion in all its unapparent darkness.