Image: Silken Weinberg & Angela Ricciardi
Skullcrusher has released the title track from her forthcoming sophomore EP, Storm in Summer. The musical project of Helen Ballentine, the musician gained international acclaim with the release of her debut eponymous EP last year.
Speaking of the track Ballentine shares: “I wrote “Storm in Summer” after releasing the first Skullcrusher EP. Over that summer I thought a lot about what it means to really put myself out there and share something personal. I felt so vulnerable and overwhelmed by the fact that these songs I had written in private were exposed and likely being misinterpreted or disliked. I think the song really tries to communicate these anxieties in a cathartic way while also leaning more into the beauty of relinquishing part of myself.”
The magnetic 'Storm in Summer' seems first to float on a bucolic breeze, with Weinman’s sparkling banjo gently holding hands with Ballentine’s guitar. But as they vault into the chorus, phosphorescent guitar and cascading drums galvanize Ballentine’s beautifully rendered worries about being too hard to understand or too open to being understood. It moves from pleasantness to absolute power in an instant, like a late-afternoon thunderclap.