A moving single from Nashville-based artist Meghan Pulles, “mamma” stirs in its yearning for familial comfort, particularly in the context of generational trauma. “‘Cause I’m screaming into a void of darkness,” Pulles lets out amidst percussive pit-pattering and emotive piano. “I’m screaming out but all I hear is silence.” The haunting, quivering vocals call out for some level of comfort or guidance from their mother or father, though are met with a distant response and feelings of emotional abandonment.
“Can you hear me?” the vocals repeat during one segment, with ghostly backing reflections adding further to the emotional mystique. This nearly 8-minute epic is bolstered by expansive instrumentation in the second half; twangy guitars, flourishing acoustics, and a rhythmic underlying concoct a riveting soundscape as the vocals fade. “mamma” is another powerful piece of songwriting from Pulles, who first caught our ears with the track “father, oh father” in April.
Pulles elaborates on “mamma”:
“This song is a song about accessing your inner child, and the feelings that remain when you have been emotionally abandoned by your parents. It was really important to me to put this song on the album because one of the themes of the record is generational trauma within the family. This song is the phone call that you make to your parents or parental figures when you are having a rough day, and for whatever reason they are unable to hold that space or to see and hear you the way that you need them to. It’s dedicated to anyone who has ever felt abandoned in any way by people that are supposed to love them.”
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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of August 2023’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup, as part of the artist’s promotional campaign.
