‘The Becoming Of You’ by Ren Harvieu: The best new classic Kate Bush-era song in 30 years
Have you listened to the latest single from Ren Harvieu, ‘The Becoming Of You’, yet? It’s the best new classic-era Kate Bush song we’ve gotten in over 30 years.
However, while it is gently propelled by a central guitar motif and an overall tone that owes more than a little to the sonic palette of ‘Army Dreamers’, ‘The Becoming Of You’ is much more than just a Kate Bush copy-job.
One of the most daring, experimental and explorative songwriters of her time, Ren Harvieu undoubtedly puts the “art” in art-ist and in art-pop/rock. She’s never been afraid to tinker with her tones, investigate new instrumentation or to juggle the genres, and you only need to take a listen to songs as varied and undefinable as ‘Strange Thing’, ‘Yes Please’, ‘Full Bloom’, ‘Open Up Your Arms’ and ‘Black Wig’ to get a sense of her inexhaustible creativity. ‘The Becoming Of You’ is simply the latest example demonstrating her mercurial talents.
One of Harvieu’s greatest strengths is melding all those disparate styles into one song; a seemingly effortless patchwork of musical ideas coalescing into a unified, dazzling whole. From those ‘Army Dreamers‘ openings, ‘The Becoming Of You’ steps through the mirror—through a house of mirrors, even—and out into fresh territory with something much less Kate Bush-like and far more uniquely Ren Harvieu.
Through the disorienting mass and layering of multiple tracks of her beautiful and breathy vocals, the introduction of phased synthesizers and unexpected percussive elements, subtle brass lines and harp flourishes—which alternately contrast or complement the guitars and flutes in the song—the track steps into a new realm of theatricality, high stakes and high drama. Before long, it warps and morphs again and shakes off the shackles of corporeality, floating away into the heavens.
From there, we are carried away by operatic floating voices which drift across the celestial and angelic symphony that develops towards the end of the song. Harvieu hits and holds an audacious and seemingly impossible high note, which cuts right through your consciousness, before gently drifting back down to Earth with a grounded, final breathy lyrical line.
Just as much as in the music, there is magic to be found in those lyrics as well. Lines such as “the many worlds inside her bedroom” and “found her in the wildflowers covered in blood” show that Harvieu is just as adept at painting a beguiling, dazzling, terrifying and impressive portrait with words as she is with her music.
All of this unfolds over the course of a little under four glorious minutes. There are so many distinct movements in the song; so many distinct passages and worlds existing, simultaneously with and independently of each other, that you would be forgiven for needing to catch your breath at the end of it all, or for needing to take a moment to work out what you’ve just witnessed.
You’d be forgiven, even, for thinking it was all just a dream.
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