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In his new single “Theme from Kiss of the Spider Woman,” singer and songwriter Ricky Comeaux asserts himself as a powerhouse vocalist above all else while sticking to a potently intellectual compositional style demanding of any artist – let alone one as independent as he is. There aren’t any major label coffers to dig into for an expanded budget here, nor does it feel as though Comeaux is pressuring himself to produce something unquestionably mainstream in demeanor; if anything, “Theme from Kiss of the Spider Woman” tells us that his eccentricity as a craftsman is only matched by his creativity as a player, and when brought together these two attributes give us some of the more inspired experimental sounds I’ve come across in the last few months.
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Beyond the lead vocal, there’s a great warmth to the string parts in this single that I would have loved to hear just a bit more of. So much of the aching passion in “Theme from Kiss of the Spider Woman” is sourced from the interplay between the different instrumental elements, but when it comes to the strings, they’re communicating something that is unique as separate from everything else going on here. Ricky Comeaux has an amazing voice that would probably sound pretty amazing in front of just about any backdrop, but because he decided to tackle something so ambitious early on in his career, I think he’s inadvertently set the bar for anything off of his sophomore album a lot higher than his rivals would probably be comfortable with themselves.
No harmony goes unsharpened by the mastery of this mix, and while the indie status of “Theme from Kiss of the Spider Woman” is never in question while we’re listening to the song, it enjoys one of the slickest production qualities you’re going to hear in any single that wasn’t more thoroughly bankrolled. We’re inching closer and closer to the climax of the song right out of the gate thanks to the pendulous beat that develops in the foreground, and it’s only because of the crispness to each gentle nudge that we’re able to appreciate just how much Comeaux so clearly put into this release, both as an artist and as a contemporary player with big ideas in the studio.
If you haven’t heard Ricky Comeaux’s first album If I Ruled the World yet, it might be wise to start off with “Theme from Kiss of the Spider Woman” to find out precisely what you’re getting into with this incredibly talented performer. This single isn’t without a certain amount of dramatic embellishment that feels progressive and rather out of place beside the sonically conservative-leaning pop aesthetics of the mainstream in 2020, but I don’t think it needs to shed that embellishment simply to fit in with the larger narrative created by the establishment in American music. It’s good to be different sometimes, and if you want to understand what I mean, I think you need to hear “Theme from Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
Skyler Voss
