abracadabra – face card
Oakland duo abracadabra are back with “face card,” the lead single from their new EP peel away, out August 7th on Melodic Records. Hannah Skelton (vocals, synthesizers) and Chris Niles (bass, synthesizers) build the track on angular synth lines, dub-inflected rhythm, and the kind of layered vocal arrangement that makes their music sound homemade and expansive at the same time. Abracadabra’s real skill is taking ideas that could read as heavy-handed and turning them into something you’d actually want to dance to.
That’s precisely the trick “face card” pulls off. The song goes after the myth of self-made success directly. “Do you really think you earned all you’ve got by yourself, and that you should keep it all for yourself?” Skelton asks. “What if those of us who received such fateful benevolence schemed about a way to bring it to a larger scale? Let’s grow a lush world together.” It’s a pointed question dressed in a genuinely fun groove, which is harder to pull off than it sounds. Most songs about privilege either lecture or apologize; this one just asks you to actually think about it while you’re moving.
Skelton has described her songwriting process as following melodies that arrive carrying their own hidden messages, riddles from the subconscious that won’t separate from the song once they show up. That instinct runs through the rest of peel away too, six songs working through luck, repair, abundance, and anger with the same mix of curiosity and groove.
