Toronto singer-songwriter and visual artist La Faute — aka Peggy Messing — channels a shadowy folk ethos that feels honest, undiluted, and driven by a desire to unearth truth where no light has yet reached. Drenched in gauzy rhythms and melodic vagaries, her work isn’t interested in static ideologies but is used as a means of personal revelation and a development of a broader perspective on broken social structures and emotional malleability. She has recently announced the forthcoming release of her debut album, Blue Girl Nice Day, under the La Faute moniker and is hoping to have it finished sometime soon.
For our first glimpse into that upcoming album, she has shared the title track, a gently unsettling folk whisper that showcases her commanding voice and calmly plucked guitar before we’re able to get a better understanding of her intent. Collaborating with producer Topher Mohr, and utilizing acoustic and tenor electric guitars, as well as some outdated hardware samplers, Messing created “Blue Girl Nice Day” as a way to examine the infamous Milgram Experiments of the ’60s. These tests revealed our subservience to any level of authority and showed how quickly we’d bend our own conscience in service to that authority.
A ballad which slowly blossoms into a threatening narrative of betrayal through unconscious dependence, “Blue Girl Nice Day” is a gorgeous folk rumination on social and personal responsibility — or lack thereof. The title of of the track includes some of the words which were repeated during the experiments: Blue/Girl, Nice/Day, Slow/Dance, Sweet/Taste, and so on. Among the soft moments of calm melodies, there are brief flashes of distortion, small moments of awareness that are quickly submerged by the surrounding spectral atmospheres. Disquieting and littered with lyrical menace, the song demonstrates La Faute’s exquisite ability to mingle foreboding narratives with mesmerizing musical dalliances.
Watch the video below.
La Faute is currently working on her debut album. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
