With the release of a second Boomkat album this year ("A Million Trillion Stars") I am taking a closer look at their music and the singer Taryn Manning. (who is also an actress in such films as Hustle & Flow, 8 Mile, and Crossroads..a.k.a that movie with Britney Spears..) So far I hear a good variety of quality pop music, the kind that usually comes out of the UK. The first single "Run Away" is a compelling pop song with plucky harp patch sprinkled over a crunchy beat. With the addition of personally revealing lyrics and an engaging video presence, this song has drawn deep inside of me to become one of my favorites so far this year.
The video appears to show the singer isolated and deatched at a superficial LA pool party. The singer has said herself in an interview with YRB magazine that "it's a party I throw, but I'm like a phantom at my own party.." This would seem to be the interpretation one would get at a passing glance.. That level of meaning recalls in my mind songs set at parties that are either defiant and accusatory to the crowd around around them [Louise - "2 Faced"] or observationally unsure. [Joni Mitchell - "People's Parties", lyrics]
From the first flash of blue light emerging from the water, I started to see a deeper level of meaning in this video - The involution of the soul into this world of matter. Singing from the perspective of the higher self who "sees everything" there is such a difficulty for those who retain this awareness, to be trapped in the heaviness of the world. To be inside the human form with full knowledge, but unable to fully understand the world around would inspire a feeling of wanting to run away, back into the higher realms. To be in such a social situation as a party full of people, her form appears to move among the others drawing forth their own blue sparks as she sees deeply into each one of them. Perhaps the brightness of all those lights can be overwhelming, causing a a further descent to run away into the direction of detached darkness.. Despite stumbling she runs back to her own light, and at the end she kneels before the pool in the same place where her blue light emerged earlier, as she reaches in to retrieve it once again. This premise is found in the Gnostic Hymn Of The Pearl and is echoed in the M. Night Shyamalan film "The Lady In The Water".
Unfortunately Taryn Manning had her own brush with mortality. She was aboard the famous Jet Blue flight 292 incident, where she and her co-passengers (and I) watched on live television as the plane circled around the LAX airport knowing there was a twisted front landing gear. Everyone watched the plane dump fuel and make it's final approach, not knowing if the inevitable sparks would engulf the plane in flames live on CNN. There was ample time for these passengers to reflect on what was going on, but she and others comforted the passengers who were the most upset. Through the precise skills of the pilot and some seeing the divine intervention of angels, ["Three Hours of Fear and Hope"] the plane managed to land safely with everyone ok and she lived to make this song..
