@ is one of the most interesting projects of recent times, and not only because of its curious name. Most of Victoria Rose and Stone Filipczak’s compositions aim to hover somewhere between the folk sound of artists like Elliott Smith and the instrumental filigree of bands such as Black Country, New Road. Despite the beauty surrounding their songs, @ also carries a Halloween-worthy touch of unease. For this reason, ‘Bird’ is the Song of the Day.
The track that opens the duo’s latest album, ‘Autosmile’, starts with a guitar arrangement worthy of any horror film. The lyrics perfectly match the mood: ‘Give me warmth, give me death, whatever it is, I don’t want it / I went out onto the deck to bore a hole in my head.’ Filipczak also mentions the ‘funeral’ of a ‘bird in decomposition’ or being at the mercy of God and of ‘destiny’.
If the imagery isn’t macabre enough, ‘Bird’ continually toys with dissatisfaction, placing dissonant chords just when you anticipate a release. The official video, with its touch of folk-horror fantasy, shows someone slowly turning into a bird, making it the perfect companion to the song.
However, @ do give us what we want in the chorus of ‘Bird’, turning everything spoken into an anthem about indifference that, in turn, is pure melodic bliss: ‘Go away or stay, make your choice / I’m not going to wait for it’, sing the two members. In the final moments of the song, an entire ensemble of synthesizers seizes the mix, and for a moment the track is filled with light.
