“She’s Pure Astral Light (Or So She Says)” is the sort of tune title that gets really fascinating the more you check it out. Without the incidental, it seems like an analogy one would use for a sweetheart, similar to “She’s a Rainbow”. However, when was the last time you heard anybody – or anything – depicted as “unadulterated astral light”? It’s not even fundamentally free, to such an extent as reminiscent of something extraordinary. With the incidental, obviously, it turns into somewhat interesting: envision the sort of individual who might contrast herself with a beam of ethereal starlight! No big surprise the storyteller projects a doubtful eye.
No piece of the title appears in the verses of “She’s Pure Astral Light”, the new tune by Pretty Bitter, however it works effectively of portraying the lady to whom the storyteller tends to the melody. She’s somebody with an odd air, a powerful presence, however she’s as yet equipped for being similarly as chaotic and egotistical and restless as simple humans. “You like apparitions/you grasp them/and bum their smokes,” frontwoman Emelia Bleker sings. What’s more, this being of “unadulterated astral light” can likewise regret herself: “You said the earth moved/you wished so awful it would take you,” Bleker sings, relating the last call they had.
In the subsequent refrain, the storyteller engages with someone else who professes to fiddle with the otherworldly, albeit this one appears to be less authentic than the young lady of astral light. A young lady named Amy professes to be a “healer,” yet when the storyteller continues some new age retreat with her the most she does is advise her to partake in more reefer. The storyteller surrenders that she’s most likely right, however excuses the “healer” asserts: “her mother pays her lease.” It’s both amusing and a sign of how extraordinary the nominal young lady is a major part of her life.
“She’s Pure Astral Light” doesn’t have the sort of fragile, gossamer creation one could anticipate from a tune with that name. All things being equal, it’s a marvelous type of non mainstream rock, with sproingy post-punk bass and floods of shoegaze guitars in the ensemble. Bleker’s voice, as well, is beautifully, with a sad scratch similar to Frances Quinlan’s. Everything helps ground this melody, helping it feel genuine and contributing it with the right profound stakes. “You can go assuming you need to/you can go/nobody will stop you,” Bleker calls out in the theme, and even creatures of unadulterated astral light may be contacted.