From the very first track, OXLIP thrusts you into a journey of lyrical magnificence, lullaby melodies, and all encompassing soundscapes. In describing the ten tracks, she cheekily refers to them as “Ten hard punches thrown by a soft velvet glove.” I couldn’t put it better myself. The album is unabashedly outspoken lyrically, weaving together a plethora of conceptual stories that all serve to make you entirely aware of how women “have been screwed over since time immemorial“. But amidst all the inarguable anger and resentment that OXLIP has towards a blatantly oppressive patriarchal structure, the melodies wouldn’t make you think it. As she puts it, “sometimes a completely beautiful song can be the greatest way to say fuck you “. Because that’s what this album is filled with — beautifully mesmerising folk tunes which are serenading and comfortable to hear but devastating and thought provoking to listen to.
The titular track, ‘Your Mother Was A Peacock’, is perhaps the most heart wrenching yet sonically soothing piece on the record. Written from the viewpoint of WWI dancer and courtesan Mata Hari the song narrates her story in a melancholic and hopeful manner. The song describes the fallout of Mata’s sentencing to death for espionage as she sits in her prison cell the night before she is to be executed. Resigned to her fate, but keen to impart a last will to the world, she writes a letter to her daughter: “Your mother was a peacock so soft her feathered hair/too beautiful and tender in a world ruled by men.” An older woman narrating the horrors of the world to her young daughter. Similarly, the rest of the project takes on a similar style, describing how a woman from history has been victim to a patriarchal superstructure that refuses to give them any leeway, instead actively choosing to oppress.
Personally, the song that hit me the hardest was ‘Samois-sur-Seine’. Named after the commune in France, the song is the most cinematic experience on the entire project. ‘Meet me in the chapel of Samois-sur-Seine”. I can’t claim to speak for OXLIP here, but I got the feeling that this place represented some kind of refuge, a reprieve from the darkness and unfairness of the rest of the world. ‘Wild Woodbine’ is another standout. It’s got a haunting feeling to it, one that stays with you long after its closure.
‘Your Mother Was A Peacock’ isn’t just a melodically transportive folk album, it’s one that everyone should listen to for it content. OXLIP’s songwriting is testament to music’s ability to serve as a creative force that offers education as much as it does pleasure. Go listen to it back to front now.