ELIZABETH DEVLIN
Conscientious Objector is a follow-up to the previously released albums: Orchid Mantis ( Fall 2017), For Whom the Angels Named (Fall 2011), Ladybug EP (Winter 2011), and All Are Relative (Winter 2009).
Performer and songwriter Elizabeth Devlin delivers her fourth album and fifth release, Conscientious Objector, in Winter of 202, during a penumbral lunar eclipse, a time when residents of North America, might see a darker Full Moon during the maximum phase of the eclipse. Devlin’s hope is that people will use Conscientious Objector as the soundtrack for this celestial event, while reflecting on themes of isolation, protestation, love lost and gained, and socio-political unrest and global struggle. “This may seem gloomy but the message here is one of hope; we embrace what is, and what does not kill us, this will make us stronger. This album is an invocation of hope, honesty, strength and perseverance.”
Tango Incubus, the opening track, sets an ominous stage for the seduction macabre. Devlin layers multiple tracks of Fender Rhodes, Autoharp and sultry vocals. This is accompanied by an accordion solo written by Devlin, for Susan Hwang (The Bushwick Book Club, Lusterlit and The Debutante Hour). Tango Incubus speaks to “possession, dance, ghostly rapture and submission to sound,” says Devlin. What happens when, “the body lets go; when physical and emotional existence transcends mortality and lives immortally within the music”. Devlin wrote this song one night, after attending a popular, nomadic NYC dance party, THE GET DOWN. In the midst of the pandemic, Devlin reminisces...“It is strange to think of it now, like a dream, to be in a crowded room, sweating and screaming and pressed up against other sweaty bodies in every direction…," says Devlin, "but this is what pre-pandemic celebration was, magic moments that gave the body supreme joy. The celebration of what was, in sometimes the best way of coming terms with what is devoid in the present.”
The next two tracks, Protestation, and East Berlin & Dilley, contain socio-political contemplations and personal experiences for Devlin, by speaking to history and current affairs, in which, a community or groups of citizens are consumed by conflict and unrest. Protestation tells the story of an individual, caught amongst violent protests, looking for a partner they have lost, “the narrator is caught in the avalanche of emotions, energy and panic; they are caught in a protest, and realize they are drowning under the waves of emotions.”
East Berlin & Dilley was inspired by Devlin’s Dad’s. “He was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war. He chose this status, when he was drafted, and instead of being placed as a medic on the front line, was assigned a tour in Europe. When finished with his service, he was given the option to go home to the US or to stay in Europe. He choose the latter and backpacked through Europe. When I was a little girl, my Dad told me about taking a train through East Berlin. He talked about the train stations being darkened as the trains passed. The idea of a wall going up over night, and families being split in half, resonated with me then, and I harkened back to that memory when I started hearing Trump talk about building a wall between the United States of America and Mexico. There is a very good chance I would not be here today if my dad had chosen a different path. My song, East Berlin and Dilly, in part, are extracted from his memories of traveling through East Berlin when the wall was still up and the correlation I found between his memories, the current political choices made for how detainees at the boarder are treated, and Trumps desire to build a wall."
Conscientious Objector also includes the tracks Red Cement Pianos, an acoustic, heart-wrenching narrative of love lost, Natural Born Killers, inspired by the 1994 thriller directed by Oliver Stone and bearing the same name, and, I Watched Me Disappear, a song inspired by Devlin’s participation in the Bushwick Book Club reading assignment of "My Brilliant Friend," by Elena Ferrante. “In the first few pages, the main character talks about her friend's disappearance,” says Devlin, “no more than 15 pages in, I put down the book, and this song poured out of me.”
Conscientious Objector was recorded with Daniel Sanint,FLUX Studio NYC and mastered with Paul Gold, Salt Mastering, in Brooklyn, NYC.