Gabrielle Papillon released the bold new title track from her upcoming album Keep The Fire this week. We already know exactly where we’d like to see the song turn up next.
Some songs immediately grab you, and thrust themselves upon your eardrums screaming, “Credit sequence music.” That’s what Gabrielle Papillon’s ‘Keep The Fire’ does. It’s big, and it’s dramatic, and it’s just right for wrapping up the surprise twist to a particularly juicy episode. Maybe it’s just that we’re halfway through September now and we’ve reach the time of year when the mind tends to wander to thoughts of The Walking Dead. That’s why we’ve chosen to go with a very literal interpretation of the song.
That gentle opening of a warm Rhodes is reassuring in a Radiohead meets Vince Guaraldi sort of way, but it doesn’t last long. Papillon wants you to know, “This is bad.” We get to the meat of it almost immediately: “There ain’t no bitter like the taste of you.”
“This album is more a reflection of a moment in my life than any other record I’ve ever written,” Papillon says. “I had to rid myself of a good deal of baggage in order to really nurture the fire that would keep me going. I had to be critical about what I needed and what I had to let go of, in my personal life.”
Which is all and well for the life of Papillon, but for our purposes we’re going to imagine it in the context of a post-apocalyptic zombie-plagued world. The thought of someone facing a night alone, trapped somewhere, having betrayed their former lover, and waiting for the monsters to come, all while wondering if they’ve become what they fear most is just the sort of storytelling AMC was built on. So have at it.
Keep The Fire is will be available via UK label The state51 Conspiracy on Friday, October 13th.
October 06 – Sydney, NS @ Gobblefest
October 12 – Mount Stewart, PE @ Trailside Cafe