Praything: Her Skin Caught the Glow EP

     
          Self Released // 2012
          Dropped by Robert Miller

Music from this album
Praything: “The Fetter”

I’ve seen Praything’s Ju Kovacevich a few times live, and in each performance there were always these raw aggressive moments where he was headbanging on the keyboard or someone was rocking out, like it was Pantera on speed circa 1990. But when I came home and immediately ran a search for Praything, I found mostly softer pieces—lots of sleepy time (albeit beautiful) tunes. Maybe it was just the brash energy of live performances that brought these aggressive Praything moments to my attention, but I was surprised to find his discography replete with folk and indie pop.

His newest EP, Her Skin Caught the Glow, is the latest batch of loving, caressing sounds, and when I first hit play on the opening track, “The Fetter,” I couldn’t believe what I was delving into. Combining the subtlety of Beach House, the romanticism of Hundred Waters and the reverence of Fleet Foxes, Praything molds five tracks not only worthy of your endlessly rotating playlist, but also for your personal year-end favorites.

As the wavering keys introduce opening track, “The Fetter,” and steady percussive drums build up to Kovacevich’s child-like intonations, it’s as if you immediately feel pulled into a dream world. Even the track’s first line isn’t entirely based in reality: “If I’m standing around, around your place / Take me out / Show me our favorite films / Teach me your favorite stars.” These series of “what if” statements are the equivalent of Kovacevich letting us into his thoughts and his own fiction. Even the cover of the EP explodes with cherry blossoms in an almost unbelievable light, as if this entire project was wrapped up in beautiful—and even nightmare-ish—spectacles.

The following songs, “Soon Soon” and “Rise Rise Rise,” deal with some headier subjects, including physical pain, regrets and nostalgia. Kovacevich’s lyrics are almost intentionally masked, though, as if he never wants to come right out and say what it is he’s trying to say. We get these vague lines like “I believe in the little things” or “In dissolution, I found beauty,” but those lines are interspersed with more solid lines, which are made all the more stark and real. When Kovacevich’s voice eagerly and sincerely ascends in the line, “How the hell have you been?” on “Soon Soon,” we can clearly see the situation before us—two people joined together after some definite time of turmoil.

In an interview with Praything, Kovacevich explained to me that it is pretty simply a breakup record, although he did say, “I tried to just write a whole thing about, not a break up, but, the nice things, and even the sort of shitty things that I regret.” I guess that translates pretty directly on “Rise Rise” when he says he believes in the little things. Her Skin Caught the Glow is just about that: the little things—the small everyday occurrences that we often take for granted and never truly notice; “the shape of your soles”; the “twitch of shoulder.”

Kovacevich really shows his vocal chops on this EP as well. Whether it’s the crooning, elongated refrain of “soon” on “Soon Soon” or how his falsetto accentuates “skin” when he sings the title line “Her skin caught the glow” on “A Million Lives,” he continually gives it his all. And even though Kovacevich claims he doesn’t have any formal background in writing, there’s a real modern poetic technique to the album. His attention to the small details makes a world of difference. We’ve all heard breakup records before, and they often follow the same pattern. Somebody gets hurt; someone’s bitter; there’s revenge, anger and sadness, but we all know where that ends up. It’s the same playbook from soap operas to Hallmark movies. But Praything’s Her Skin Caught the Glow is much more thoughtful than that. Not only does it avoid the cliches, but there’s no real need for resolution even. Where most breakup records feel the need to reconcile in some way, Kovacevich is content to just bask in the glow of the important memories. And I think we’re all content to just leave it at that.

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Listen to Praything’s Her Skin Caught the Glow EP in its entirety via Bandcamp below: