When it rains, it pours. Katy Guillen was dealing with a breakup, the collapse of her previous band, a transitory living situation, and her pet suddenly dying when she penned “Discoloration”. And while the track could be a depressing pity party, Katy Guillen & The Drive pull us through the turmoil and into a determined outlook.
From the opening dirty guitar vamp, Guillen places us solidly in a gritty, grungy timbre. Even the slightly distorted, echoey vocals grate with her pain. The marching drive from Stephanie Williams on drums plods into this gray world.
“I’m turning white from disbelief, blue from holding on too much,” they cry. They feel “stuck in the gray now.” But we’re not left to wallow here. The textures shift into an anthemic chorus. It may not be brimming with hope, but there’s a positive shift. Even when the original timbre returns, it’s no longer pessimistic.
“Discoloration” achieves the raw emotional reality of a terrible situation while not letting it consume us. It projects a willful change from a current gray into bright technicolor.
Stream “Discoloration” below.
Ben is an advertising Madman who spends his days with words and music. When he’s not writing for his supper, he’s eating it at some of NYC’s most interesting restaurants.