Next month Jenn Wasner unveils her new Flock Of Dimes album The Life You Save. So far we've heard “Long After Midnight” and "Afraid," and now the Wye Oak member is back with "Defeat."
"This song represents a moment of total surrender," Wasner says, expounding:
It’s about the moment I finally allowed myself to accept my own powerlessness, and started the process of learning how to step back and allow others to face the consequences of their actions. It features a moment of melodic counterpoint that became a sort of mantra for myself as I attempted to make my way through this process — I’m inside it, after all. This realization — kindly first introduced to me by someone I love who sees me clearly — was something of a breakthrough for me. Learning to see myself as a part of a dynamic (rather than separate, having escaped) was an important step in changing my own behavior — which is, ultimately, the only real agent of change over which I have any sort of control. Three years after I wrote it, the work continues — I am still working on trying to see myself not as some kind of savior figure, but just another flawed human being, doing her best.
As with the previous singles, "Defeat" is sonically gentle with strong emotions: "The pain will be inflicted in some other eventual way," Wasner accepts over soft synths. Listen below.
The Life You Save is out 10/10 via Sub Pop.
