One-by-one, artists continue to be exiting their pandemic-instigated hibernations to release capsules of songs that summarize the past two years, weighing the occasional epiphanies and blissful moments that solitude provided against the endless stream of hard-to-process news that’s been the norm throughout the period. For synthpop innovator Alice Cohen, July 8 will see the release of her seventh LP titled Moonrising, which strives to encapsulate that gamut of emotion over the course of 10 tracks, with the hard-to-pin-down genre experimentation of “Wild Wolf” leading the pack last month.
Today Cohen is returning with another single called “Bodies in Motion” which pairs her calm delivery with lyrics about dancing into oblivion backed by minimal guitar and synths. Yet underneath that tranquil surface lies probing lyrics about processing the events of 2020 as individuals before emerging to resync into a singular voice speaking out against our collective struggles.
“Written during a heavy time during the pandemic when protests were happening regularly against police brutality and the murder of George Floyd and other POC, the song embodies the atmosphere of the black helicopters flying overhead as people gathered and struggled to fight back, and find solace during all of it,” she shares. “The song touches on mysticism and religion as attempts at comfort while we hibernate into caves to create, and then coming out of our caves again to participate in our collective struggle. The song relays my impressions of that time—very melancholy, but also hopeful as our collective bodies gathered together to connect and move forward.”
You can hear the track below, which arrives with a self-made stop-motion visual illustrating the song’s themes.
