New York City-based artist Eartheater (Alexandra Drewchin) released her sixth full-length studio album on Sept. 20. “Powders” featured nine songs, and is another experimental album.
I have always been drawn to Eartheater’s style, specifically the surrealist elements and metaphors that seem to not only be a huge part of her sound, but her album cover art as well. The “Powders” cover showcases her alongside a shoreline, in a contortionist’s position with her legs and feet draped over her own head. There is something so dreamlike about this cover, it almost looks like a watercolor painting. She pulls from various experimental, surreal and fantastical elements in her fashion sense and sound that make her a distinct persona in the music and art industry.
Her style is a nod towards her independence as an artist, coining a completely unique sound and style, with all songs on the album written and executively produced on her own. Eartheater moved to the city at a young age and made a name for herself in the experimental music scene from there.
In an interview with Alternative Press, Eartheater said “I had absolutely no rules with ‘Powders.’ The songs chose me — I didn’t choose them.” You can sense just how interconnected she is to her own music, and how her music really pulls from somewhere deep within the soul, the mind and the universe.
The album opens with “Sugarcane Switch,” which has an apparent melodic, electronic and melancholic tone to this track. “The moonlight belongs to me, while you sleep in your furious dreams.” This line is powerful in the way that natural and celestial elements played a big role in Eartheater’s lyricism on this album, pulling from these elements that are bigger than life here on earth, and essentially ground us down here. This was a beautiful opening track to an album that was made with so much thought.
The track ends with the lyrics “It’s now obsolete, we ground it down into something sweet,” transitioning into the next track, “Crushing,” by taking the same melody from the previous song but using different lyrics and vocals. In what is probably my favorite track on the album, in “Crushing” she references different materials being ground up or transformed into smaller things. She talks about the way waves can crush shells into sand, and how flames can turn sand into glass. This track reminds us how many of these different elements can be created by breaking down others, making something new from something old.
The lyricism throughout the album conjures a feeling of a story, pulling similar elements into each track, that all relate to each other in a beautiful way compositionally. Her vocals throughout the project are other worldly, perfect for the overarching theme surrounding the album, creating a perfect balance between the different celestial, and natural ideas she calls on throughout the project.
Her fifth track, “Chop Suey” is a cover of a song by the Nu-Metal band System of a Down, rebirthing the track and giving it an entirely new feel and emotion using a bare and intimate guitar melody attached to her powerful vocals. I was surprised to hear a familiar song done so entirely different, especially because it gives listeners a special insight on what other kinds of music artists have connections to.
“Powders” is the album that breaks earth and space into its finest elements, putting the moon and stars into perspective compared to what lies here on this planet. The album serves as a reminder that these celestial elements are larger than life, and can never be broken by humans, but at the same time the album reinforces the idea that things here on Earth can be broken and crushed, even turned into powder.
The substantial, materialistic things that are here on Earth, can quickly change and take new shapes or forms. This album looks deep on the inside, and above the earth on an immense, immersive scale. The album makes me feel small, in a way that is beautiful, reminding me that the moon, the stars and the sun are all above me, bigger than I will ever be.
This story was written by Sofía Cortés. She can be reached at [email protected].
