- Bryon Harris
Abigail Fierce - 'Pitch Dark'
Review by Pat Joseph & Staff
Abigail Fierce is a 19 year-old singer-songwriter and actress living in LA. She loves to write songs alone at 4am. She can be seen as Wendy on the new Hulu series "Love, Victor", Netflix's "American Vandal" and Hannah Stocking's "The Set Up." Her song "Pitch Dark" showcases a sophisticated songwriting style with modern radio sensibilities.
Major yet melancholy are the first things that come to mind as I push play on “Pitch Dark,” a very mellow yet subtlety effective ballad about finding romance while hiding out in a coffee shop during a thunderstorm. The symbolism is in full effect, with the production and instrumentation, as long sustained lead guitar lines are juxtaposed with crisp acoustic picking and comped guitar chords quietly played. Add to that a kick drum doused in reverb sounding off in the distance. The combination of each instrument comes together to create the atmosphere of a far away storm somewhere. The ambience of the instruments in the background combined with Abigail’s soothing vocals immediately put me in a relaxed state.
The lyrical content instantly takes you to the scene of a crowded coffee shop and illustrates the awkward silences most of us feel when meeting someone new. I personally think this is best shown in the line “You go to the counter to order another cup Things are getting to be a little much. So I write my name and number on a napkin and slide it under your drink and slip out of the side door, back into the rain”. The writing is very refined and evokes vivid relatable imagery.
There’s also a lot of nice dynamic interplay with the use of arrangement between verses and choruses. I’m personally a big fan of songs that take their time to build and “Pitch Dark” does just that. The first verse and chorus are just guitar and vocals. Finally on verse two the backbeat is introduced providing a nice sense of variety and serving effectively as a build up towards the 2nd chorus where the arrangements really come through. Hi hat is finally introduced providing some nice rhythmic connective tissue and creating a strong impact along side the bass which sounds big and full but never overpowering. These work together really well to build to an emotional crescendo before the song ends the way it began.
Abigail Fierce is a rising artist who offers a sophisticated touch to modern indie pop music. This is music for the ears and the mind that remains relatable which is hard to pull off, but Fierce does it masterfully.
Connect on Instagram.
Stream on Spotify.