Bakers know to cut their sweetest confections with salt, to give dimension to that sugary taste. Painters and photographers use shadow to give shape to light. And on her latest single, "Still Your Girl" (from her newest EP, Arrows), the Michigan-born, Nashville-bred singer-songwriter Fleurie (born Lauren Strahm) uses heavy, jarring electronica to turn an airy pop song into something dark and downright luscious.
Strahm opens the track with a layered, beckoning coo, which gives way to warm strings and a pure, plaintive vocal. The stage seems set for a pretty pop song. A few lines later, a low synth cuts in like a thumping heartbeat. Different, but not disparate. And then, suddenly, the bottom drops out. Or, more accurately, the bottom rises up, sharply: Strahm's voice jumps higher, and she's chased by sticky, weighty synths and pounding percussion that hits as startlingly as a sudden storm through a blown-open window. The weightless quality of her voice doesn't change, but it holds the potential for thunder from that moment on. When she sings "I swear I'm still your girl" at the end of every chorus, as the synth fades and the skies (temporarily) clear, she doesn't sound devoted. She sounds haunted. And in making "Still Your Girl," Strahm and producer Matt Stanfield understood that contrasting these parts and emotions makes for a richer, more satisfying whole.
Arrows is out now on FleurieMusic.com.
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