Lustful and lascivious, platonic and playful, calculating and cruel. There are infinite ways love can manifest itself and we spend much of our lives trying to understand its powerful hold over us. On “Poison Ivy,” singer and songwriter Sarah Rae examines the many nuances of love, from the knotted euphoria of early romance to the anxiety-inducing tendency we have to question every step of the process. On the one hand, it’s a celebration of love’s welcoming embrace and its intoxicating allure. Probe a little deeper, however, and you’ll also find a guarded warning about its ability to turn toxic.
Released in June, the track has emerged as a personal highlight as well as a live fan favorite. It isn’t difficult to see why. Mixing percolating pop sounds with dreamy, windswept vocals, “Poison Ivy” encapsulates much of Rae’s musical appeal. Her songs are idiosyncratic but accessible; they’re full of rhythmic drive and moody atmosphere. They aren’t so much a compendium of genres—dreampop, shoegaze, post-punk, and so on—as they are an attempt to carve out mini-worlds and populate them with rumbling celestial sounds. The resulting works are catchy and familiar, yet entirely her own.
Created by local Atlanta animator P.W. Shelton, the video is similarly engrossing, full of rich and vivid detail. There are allusions to fairy tales strewn throughout, most specifically the dark psychological surrealism of Alice in Wonderland. It’s a tale of a journey both physical and mental as the protagonist travels through the wild and eventually arrives at a tea party in a hidden glen. There, she discovers companionship and what seems like loving acceptance. Unfortunately, it’s all fleeting. The ending is perhaps more nefarious and menacing than what’s outlined in the song, but it adds a level of potency that may have otherwise gone missing.
For Rae, it was everything she could have hoped for after handing over the creative reigns to Shelton. “When I watched the video knowing the desired expression I was aiming for, I honestly was immediately in love,” she writes in an email. “P.W. took my idea of expressing how love can be so bittersweet and turned that into a tale of a protagonist being manipulated by her peer and being led by the idea of love down a false rabbit hole. It honestly was beautiful to me!”
Watch/listen above.
Sarah Rae will perform tomorrow night, Oct. 7, at Boggs Social & Supply alongside Nite and Lashing. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $12. 21+ to enter. Proof of vaccination or negative COVID test within 72 hours required. Mask up, y’all.
More Info
Web: sarahraesings.com
Bandcamp: sarahraesings.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @sarahraesings
Instagram: @sarahraesmiles
Twitter: @sarahraesmiles