Delilah Wood, the Los Angeles-based artist, released her debut single “of the pines” on July 17th, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Josiah Mazzaschi at The Cave Studio, Los Angeles, the engineer behind sessions with The Jesus and Mary Chain, Idles, and Soko. Wood handles composition, guitar, and vocals with Kevin Lambertucci on bass guitar and Sebastian Feo on drums,
Before even pressing play, Wood had already done something right in my book. Visuals. Her visual world is on her website. Her in water, with the coloring of the movie Thirteen and visuals that are burlesque-esque, or her as a showgirl, a performer, an artist. She knows exactly what she’s doing, and it’s immediately compelling, so many artists forget to give you a visual, an invitation into the artist’s creative world surrounding their craft. I praise her for this.
And then the song starts. Wood’s voice is distinctive and completely her own from the first note. The opening has a production similar to George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness,” and then it plays into something propulsive as the bass and drums push the track forward.
“Yet I fold, yet I fold” is the moment the song becomes something else entirely. It is transformative and submerging. And the way she delivers “I was born out of the pines” with so much ache and conviction is stunning. The song quietly ends on the same line at the end, which is a perfect choice.
To me, “of the pines” explores attachment and blame with a tenderness that never tips into self-pity. Lines like “you must treat me kinder than other men, the ones who followed me into the wood” are vivid and specific, pulled from somewhere personal.
The music video that followed with the single, released on July 31st, was directed and colored by Oliver Hales, and it was stunning. The visuals carry the same energy as The Last Showgirl, directed by Gia Coppola. They both have that same melancholic femininity, with aerialist Lisa Marie Burnside performing as what I can only describe as Wood’s alter ego dancing while Wood watches her and slowly becomes the star she wants to be, but that’s only my interpretation. Blues and purples that are pure Petra Collins, lush and intentional. Her acoustic performance as an additional add to her single carries the same aesthetic coherence; nothing feels accidental. Delilah Wood knows exactly how to brand herself, and the music video confirms it. Delilah Wood might just be my favorite artist I’ve reviewed, and I mean that, for a debut single…. A star is born.
Written by Anthony Perez
