Opening with the kind of vocal melodies and heart racing drums that would sit at home in the opening of Twin Peaks, Wish Queen’s Coast To Coast has the kind of otherworldly, dreamlike quality I can’t resist.
Wish Queen is the musical pseudonym of Cleveland-based musician Grace Sullivan, and Coast To Coast is taken from her recent debut album, Saturnalia. Sullivan takes inspiration from a range of creative, bold and artistic predecessors, including Billie Holiday, Joni Mitchell, Fiona Apple, and Lana Del Rey. I also hear some Bat For Lashes here too, even if it is just as a result of a shared set of forebears, and her sound has been compared to Stevie Nicks meets Beach House.
All of which is a recipe to make me swoon. Grace’s glass-like vocals shimmer, like weightless crystals refracting the light to create a glistening beauty. In the song’s middle, the vocal is left almost in isolation, a hushed guitar strummed as the sole accompaniment. It is a beautiful moment of internal reflection that only serves to underline the heartfelt drama as the instrumentation returns.
Coast To Coast is positioned as the narrative climax of Wish Queen’s debut album, an album about ‘breaking patterns and self actualization, through the lens of the astrological "Saturn Return”’. Self-released, Saturnalia is an impressive accomplishment, which points to an even more impressive potential.