Pageants – “Worse” – Sun And Settled Days
Pageants, the duo of Rebecca Coleman and Devin O’Brien, make shimmering music that really resonates with the listener. According to FLOOD, the single “Worse”
captures that complicated feeling of distress, longing, and peculiar anxiety that comes with knowing that things can only get harder,
but in a way that is so uplifting. Coleman’s voice is so sweet and tender, hiding the pain, while the music transports you to a different world, a world where pop country meets surf pop. Quoting FLOOD again, because Margaret Farrell has it right:
In the single’s video the two paint a colorful mural with heavy symbolism. “We were looking to create a sense of tension between two emotional realities, linked together by a painting. One side is content and carefree, while the other is lonely and forlorn, and both are held together by a physical manifestation of collaboration and love,” says O’Brien.
This might be the most romantic and sad and carefree song of the summer; that strange animal that is happiest when it is dark and cold outside. According to their bio:
(d)espite its ebullient sound, tension ripples through Sun and Settled Days—there is no light without dark. Self-soothing lullaby “Worse” chronicles Coleman’s “overwhelmed psyche” and attempts at long-distance intimacy (kissing the phone screen at the end of a FaceTime call), … “This was a time in my life when I realized that everything I’d been working for might have been in vain, but I chose to keep fighting for what and who I love,” Coleman says. She yearns for simple pleasures when her life is anything but simple; the song’s syrupy melody is as intoxicating as the emotion she captures.
Coleman has one of the strongest voices I’ve heard. Pageants is a duo that deserves to be heard, especially on summer’s night, alone except for the fireflies. Their music flickers and calls you to capture and then let go of all those feelings you have.