The Los Angeles-based Halo Kitsch may only have begun releasing music this year, racking up four singles, but she’s sitting on an impressive amount of unreleased material. Today marks the release of single number five, “Do You Feel Like A Sinner Yet?”, a cinematic beauty that takes a look at mutual culpability in a toxic relationship.
Kitsch says of the song: “I finally found vocabulary that defined the contagious toxicity of a co-dependent love trap. With the same pain it takes to grow, I reflected on the cyclical nature of what felt like a sinking rock bottom. Isn’t it ironic how the abused becomes the abuser? In hindsight, I suppose I wrote the song to myself as much as to my partner. After all, two wrongs never make a right. So, the question I pose is, ‘When have you had enough?’”
From sparse beginnings – an acoustic guitar here, finger clicks and a disarming, whistled hook there – it unfurls gracefully over its three-and-a-half minutes. Layers are added over time, yet the increasing busyness of the backing takes nothing away from Kitsch’s powerful voice as she leads the song to its peak, aided by strikingly direct lyrics (“Got a new therapist, and I did what she said / But goddamn, I still called my ex”), before things erupt amid the arrival of a forceful guitar solo; there one minute and gone the next as we’re left with the same sparse instrumentation for its closing measures.
Displaying confidence and a knack for purposeful songwriting, “Do You Feel Like A Sinner Yet?” is streaming below or on your preferred streaming platform. No doubt, there’s more to come from Kitsch next year – keep an eye out.
