London-based Greek songwriter Eleni Drake joined the MNRK roster last year with her Above Deep Water EP, and kept the momentum going back in April with the follow-up single “A Wonder Day.” Today we’re getting another new loosie in the form of “Dolores,” a track that begins as a minimal acoustic ballad bringing Adrianne Lenker to mind before opening up its palette in its final moments with dampened piano. Like the composition itself, the lyrics document its title character’s own steady awakening—with a working knowledge of a certain HBO sci-fi Western helping to fill in some of the narrative’s blanks.
“I wanted to name the song after the character from Westworld,” Drake shares, noting that the name also translates to “sorrow” in Latin. “Dolores begins as an innocent creation, but awakens to the harrowing truth of her existence. In her transformation, she becomes both the question and the answer, a symbol of the struggle for autonomy and the fragility of reality itself. It’s really about questioning if someone is how they present themselves, and realizing they are not, and it is also about taking accountability in the demise of a relationship. I, too, make mistakes, often find myself at a crossroad, and trying to find the ‘right way,’ but get it wrong.”
Get a first listen to the track below before its official release tomorrow via MNRK.
