First Listen: New ratio:state remix taps into the deeply cathartic nature of Doe Paoro’s ‘Over’
Doe Paoro poured her soul into a timely new record named Soft Power this fall. The artist, real name Sonia Kreitzer, described her songwriting process as a “reclaiming [of] parts of myself that I had lost.” It’s an immensely personal new song cycle, one which explores womanhood, misogyny, and invites its listeners to process and grieve their own experiences in an equally personal scope.
Media outlets have previously compared Paoro’s lush soul aesthetics to that of Amy Winehouse. Track titles like “Walk Through The Fire,” “Over,” and “Guilty” raise questions about harmful relationships, societal injustices, and reconciling with one’s worldly attachments. Each brings Winehouse’s truths to mind as Paoro sings the modern “what kind of fuckery is this” all throughout.
But within Paoro’s electronic departure — the new album sheds her 2015 Justin Vernon-produced After style of moody electronic soundscapes Paoro re-focuses on soulful, piano-driven pop —she gets less intentional about what the music’s achieving and more focused on what it’s saying, forsaking stylistic precision for emotional intent. It’s a move that hearkens back to her propulsive take on the Hercules & Love Affair cut “Blind,” from just a few years ago.
And it’s the same freeing embrace that channels through in ratio:state‘s new remix of the track “Over,” which Dancing Astronaut is sharing an exclusive first listen of today.
ratio:state reinterprets the song’s central question “now that I’m older / does it get easier / to get over” into a demanding, self-affirmation in its four-on-the-floor flair.
“We hit the studio, the vibes were just so natural, the result is what you hear.”
ratio:state said of the track. It’s fitting then, that the rework is a slow-burner. There’s no eruptive nature to the interpretation. There’s no bombastic EDM chorus, and there doesn’t need to be. It does get easier, but it truly is a soft kind of power.
Doe Paoro’s Soft Power is out now via ANTI- Records.
Photo Credit: Rinny Riot
Categories: Music