The UK has been at the forefront of some of the most unique and striking visual artists in recent memory. Swedish-Ecuadorian artist and innovator XATIVA is the latest to keep your eye on, making crystalline music that tells a winding and surreal story of love and loss, interweaving feelings of isolation that are all too familiar over the past years. "You're A Mistake" is her first release in nearly two years, and explores how confusing and contradictory experiences of love can be.
There's careful notes of Nico and Bjork sprinkled in the early work of the London-based singer, as it exhibits complex visual themes and gossamer vocals to tell disparate stories of relationships and heartbreak. "You're A Mistake" is a simplistic but intensely nuanced offering that emphasizes the delicate voice of XATIVA over a calm Bossa-influenced guitar with no other detractors to take away from the sanguine vibes of the track.
A deeply captivating, surrealist, Ben Cole (Odunsi, Boy George, Dolce & Gabbana, Vogue) directed visual that seems to take cues from Bergman's Persona as much as it evokes comparisons to Black Swan, accompanies the track. The visual pairs moments of intimacy with moments of destruction to create a juxtaposition of feelings that subtly drives home the conflicting emotions exhibited by XATIVA on the track. Regarding this theme, she shares, “A central theme of ‘You’re A Mistake’ and the upcoming project as a whole, is the seeming contradiction of the frustration of falling for someone who is wrong for you, but at the same time the powerful feelings of love that still draw you towards them.”
Marrying arthouse inventiveness with soothing dulcet tones, XATIVA is one of those artists you'll want to put on to your cinema buff friends just as eagerly as you introduce her to fellow audiophiles.
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