Last updated on May 9, 2022
Usually Lisa or Stephen write a premiere on their own, but “Broken Fangs” spoke to us both in different ways. So we teamed up to do a duo premiere!
Andrew Adkins’s “Broken Fangs” seems the perfect introduction to his upcoming album Rattlesnake Motions. A true child of Nashville (the music city), Adkins’ skill as a songwriter transforms an inner dialogue into a song displaying the reality of a self-realization’s horrific truth.
When talking with Adkins in the past, he revealed his love of analog retro sonic textures. Stripped, this song feels like the end of a really long party. Distant, trippy synthesizers frame a constant drum beat carrying the tambourine-wielding lost soul forward. Translated into film, the perpetual victim of every horror story we know fumbles on in a haze. Andrew Adkins delivers the metaphor-rich “Broken Fangs” as a mystic badge of courage. –Lisa Whealy
“Broken Fangs” is an unusual, almost eerie neo-soul jam. It has the soul of a Beck song in its rattling rhythms and speak-sing vocal delivery. The guitars and funky bass in the intro and chorus peg it as a soul jam. Yet the lyrics and processed vocal tone emit the ominous vibes of a latter-day Flaming Lips burner, as Adkins mentions “vampire bodies with broken fangs” before dropping into a (yes) mystical-sounding bridge featuring hand percussion prominently. It is a wild, unusual cut that is incredibly tight musically with vibes that are way out there. –Stephen Carradini