Rachel Cion - "Violin"

Rachel Cion is back. Well, she never really went away; she was just busy releasing two EPs with her band Bigfatcat over the past two years. Her first new solo track in over a year, "Violin," seems to pick up where her early single "Collision" -- roughly three years old now -- left off. The latter, produced by friend and frequent collaborator Alex Manriquez, was the first time Cion set down the guitar for a song, opting for a slow-bubbling pop beat that, while relatively simple in hindsight, was impressive for a pair of high schoolers.

 

This time around, with some digital production experience under her belt thanks to some experimenting with her band, Cion is handling production herself and the results are nothing short of impressive. The lyrics on "Violin," like "Collision," deal with the push-pull of a relationship. Simple as the concept is, Cion opts to create a track with a dizzying amount of layers. There's her lightly reverbed vocals, airy background synths, rapidfire melodic synth loops, what I believe are distorted, compressed electric guitars, and a pulsating, mid-paced dance beat that kicks into high gear as the chorus comes back near the song's conclusion. 

 

The outcome is a piece of dance pop as chaotic and glitchy as your brain's synapses as you impulsively flip between apps, but as euphoric as the moment you get the exact Twitter reply or Instagram story reaction you spent all night longing for.

 

Stream "Violin" below.

 

rachel cion · Violin