Chelsea Wolfe feat. Emma Ruth Rundle - Anhedonia (2021)
Saturday, 30th January, 2020
Single by Chelsea Wolfe feat. Emma Ruth Rundle - Stream, Download, Shop
Rating: ★★★★★
"Anhedonia is a diverse array of deficits in hedonic function, including reduced motivation or ability to experience pleasure. While earlier definitions of anhedonia emphasized the inability to experience pleasure, anhedonia is used by researchers to refer to reduced motivation, reduced anticipatory pleasure, reduced consummatory pleasure, and deficits in reinforcement learning.", per Wikipedia's definition.
Anhedonia is also an incredible new song from Chelsea Wolfe featuring Emma Ruth Rundle -- two of my favourite singers and songwriters, which I'd always felt had so much in common, that this collaboration seemed almost inevitable.
I found out about Chelsea Wolfe incidentally a few years back, and it was (feral) love at first listen. The deep and gothy sound, dark lyrics, and mood struck a chord. (I'm just this rain of sunshine.)
Her latest album, the acoustic Birth of Violence warrants a review of its own, probably coming soon, even though the album is from 2019. It's also hard to fathom the fact that Hiss Spun is already 3 and a half years old by now, having been released in late 2017. Some of my favourite songs from Chelsea are in there, such as Spun, Vex, or The Culling.
I found out about Emma Ruth Rundle by seeing her name associated with Chelsea's Bandcamp recommendations after buying one of her albums, and also because they're both Sargent House artists. Russian Circles, another of my favourite bands, are also managed and publish through Sargent House, for instance.
I listened to some of Emma's earlier stuff, Shadow of My Name, in particular, but it was Light Song that really conquered me and made Emma Ruth one of favourites. The entire Marked for Death album is a compendium of pain in song format, and as I usually say "Pain makes beautiful music".
Whereas Marked for Death is about a dark period in Emma's life, On Dark Horses is about finding the light again, as evidenced by Light Song. Make no mistake though, Emma's music is always dark and moody. Her previous album, for instance, May Our Chambers Be Full is a collaboration with sludge metal outfit Thou -- a doomy, gloomy, powerful band hailing from Louisiana, of all places. I haven't spent enough time with that album yet, but what I've heard sounds really interesting.
I've felt anhedonic through entire periods in my life, so to say the lyrics mean a lot would not be saying enough. I've been listening it on repeat, and I could only wish the collaboration got extended to an entire album.
One thing that Chelsea and Emma share is one of the things that's most important for me in a song: the quality of the lyrics. With that said, here are the lyrics for Anhedonia:
take an eye for an eye
take me down with you
take it all away
i know it all comes back times three
that human, that demon, showed me
how it ends when you treat your friends like foes
so don’t come looking for me
I’ve got my walls up now
protect myself like a fortress
and I’m on my own now
V2 (emma)
no I can’t sleep baby
and waking up is just a dream
my sadness has lost its cause
and I’m suffocating
so don’t come looking for me
I’ve got no joy to lend
protect myself like a fortress
isolating, bridge withdrawing
isolated, I can’t take it
chorus 2 (emma & chelsea)
anhedonia
anhedonia
I’ll be your silent witness
I’ll be your border line
I’ll keep you safe and sacred
just keep your heart close to mine
anhedonia
anhedonia
anhedonia
anhedonia