Grace Jones - Goodnight Louisa
Single Review
By Silva Shahini
Goodnight Louisa’s new single, ‘Grace Jones’, uniquely explores the power of artistic androgyny on two levels. Firstly, by exploring two separate sides of an illicit experience after dark (inviting someone over) through her lyrics, sonic production and by only using her vocals. Secondly, by tapping into the legacy of queer icon, Grace Jones.
The artist Grace Jones was famous for her avant guard, boundary-pushing choices in artistic spaces during the 1980s. Jones brought more visibility to alternative elements in the mainstream, namely by blurring of gender ‘boundaries’ in pursuit of artistic production. Jones bold career choices continued into her artistic lifestyle choices such her notable attendance at Studio 54. Jones’ daring dressing choices and prolific career as an actor, model and musician made Jones an inspiration for many, including Goodnight Louisa. The choices Jones made in the name of art have been celebrated, lauded and documented and Goodnight Louisa smartly taps into this memory of Grace Jones from an aural and lyrical level so her audience can ultimately understand her artistic mission.
The song ‘Grace Jones’ feels imbued with a very atmospheric , cinematic quality that showcases of the type of mood Goodnight Louisa wants to produce. Goodnight Louisa’s choice to reference to Grace Jones also impacts the song’s musical production. Goodnight Louisa’s utilisation of her deeper, distorted vocals alongside her vocally airier chorus plays into the boundary-less, artistic energy that Jones was famous for (the ability to be able to lean into both the masculine and the feminine flawlessly and simultaneously in the name of artistic creation). Beyond these vocal choices, the sound of the song combines a contemporary indie-pop sound whilst employing a 1980s synth to create a song that could soundtrack a night-time city-scape in a film. The sonic production of ‘Grace Jones’ allows Goodnight Louisa to unpack identity through art by creating a narrative voice that utilises a powerful cultural marker. The sound reflects Jones relationship to the evolution of their art in context by tapping into both a sense of history and a timeless relevance to the themes explored in the lyrics.
The lyrical references to Grace Jones further explore how ideas of the ‘masculine’ and the ‘feminine’ blur into one because Goodnight Louisa sings both parts of the “conversation”. Goodnight Louisa therefore creates narrative voices with just her vocals, creating scope to explore ideas beyond the archaic borders of gender politics much like Grace Jones did. Grace Jones, as a single, feels like an intentional deepening of the artistic direction Goodnight Louisa took in their debut album, Human Danger. Overall, the intimate energy and the referential nature of the song shows how intentional this single for Goodnight Louisa’s growing catalogue and artistic trajectory. It’s safe to say the focus Goodnight Louisa has on artistic production will be something we can all look forward to see progress in new releases.