PREMIERE: Ember Knight Drops New Single "Mvt. VII Home"

 

A ballad about the grace of death? The 1971 Walt Disney Productions v. Air Pirates lawsuit? Saying sorry to your mom? Only Ember Knight could somehow tie all of these together and not only make it make sense, but make it into a five minute rock opera that will probably make you cry.

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Today, Knight released "Mvt. VII Home" off their LP Cheryl, out November 10th on [REDACTED] EMOTIONS.

"The moral of the song is that regardless of the best or worst that we can ever do, we are messily interconnected and blessed to die," Knight said. "Every last one of us."

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I picture Knight as a mad scientist with oversized gloves and cartoonishly wild hair, mixing neon colored foaming test tubes into the big beaker that is every song they write. "Mvt. VII Home" is a little bit of ‘This Year’ by the Mountain Goats, a dash of "Welcome to the Black Parade," some church hymns and show tunes for good measure, and dare I say a splash of Vanessa Carlton's 2000 smash hit "A Thousand Miles."

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The song rises and falls, each crescendo more dramatic than the last as playful pianos and heroic guitar solos fit for an 80s stadium rock band switch off sharing the spotlight. A full choir backs up Knight, as their vocals somehow effortlessly flow from angelic falsetto, to the lead in a Broadway musical, to snarling and screaming, "I didn’t ask to be born any more than the next motherfucker."

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"Mvt. VII Home" is the dramatic finale of "Cheryl," which Knight wrote after they had already finished tracking what they thought was the entire album:

"I guess after making a huge ornate symphony about self-definition, I arrived at the edge of a cliff and said: ‘Ember, u big baby, who cares? This is grandiose nonsense! You’re going to die! Rejoice!’. And you know what? That is actually a huge relief. I don’t have to save the world, and if I did, it would just be messy again because everybody is sharing it. No matter what we do, good or bad, we are all stuck together, and headed to the same place: wherever tf we came from.I hope that when you hear it, you can feel that this isn’t nihilism at all. It’s a freedom to love life, instead of trying to fix it- because that’s when the real adventure begins."

And although this track is the conclusion of the LP, it feels like the beginning of something bright and beautiful for Ember Knight.


Listen to “MVY. VII Home” by Ember Knight out on [REDACTED] EMOTIONS and keep up with us on Instagram for more roller-coasters

Words by Lexi McCoy

Photos by G Leonardo