Vera Sola | Peacemaker
Peacemaker is an exploration of releasing rage and sorrow, of finding acceptance, and the idea that the journey of finding peace may be a nonlinear one.
By: Jessie Oswald
Vera Sola's vocals are clear, confident, and ever so icy, not holding back how her experiences, both personal and systemic, have shaped her.
Peacemaker is the bold sophomore album of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Vera Sola, who instills a sense of familiarity through a vast sonic landscape. The entire record swells with orchestral strings, gritty guitar, and soaring trumpet, beautifully complementing Vera Sola's vocal command.
In Peacemaker's album announcement in October of 2023, Vera Sola described the need to express a feeling of anger and hurt through the record. Still, while working on it, those feelings and the record itself ultimately transformed into something more extensive and multifaceted.
Peacemaker is an exploration of releasing rage and sorrow, of finding acceptance, and its episodic structure supports the idea that the journey of finding peace may be a nonlinear one.
At times, there is the shadow of anger in her vocals, while in her words, there is understanding. At other times, there is the exact opposite. Lyrics and sounds complement and contradict each other at various times to convey these emotional messages.
On two occasions, there are seamless transitions between songs: from "Desire Path" to "Waiting" and later from "Blood Bond" to "Instrument of War."
"Desire Path" is about being pushed to the edge. There's a sense of the desperation of wanting someone who, in the back of the narrator's mind, knows is lying to her. The narrator makes herself smaller and more passive compared to the other person and combined with the anguish of consistent mistreatment; the narrator is contorted into someone mad and unstable.
"Waiting," in turn, marks a turning point thematically, pulling into a slow dance as the narrator commands clarity and declares her freedom from her situation. While the gentle, swaying rhythm and crackling, warbly guitar melodies suggest a sense of nostalgia, Vera Sola's vocals are self-assured, as if closing a book with little hesitation.
Later on the album's second ballad, "Is That You?", there is a return to some of these themes. The familiar waltz-like rhythmic pattern apparent throughout the record is once again slowed, but this time, it's juxtaposed with a shaky piano melody that is ever so slightly out of tune with the rest of the instrumentation, creating an atmosphere of haunted nostalgia.
Lyrically, the narrator is being haunted by reminders of a lost love, ending with the lines "then I remember/ that the last time was forever/ the laughter was forever/ forever now/ is where you are." The love, the laughter, and the person are in the narrator's past but not erased.
At first glance, it's ironic to end an album called Peacemaker with a song called "Instrument of War," but the longer it sits with you, the more it makes sense.
"Instrument of War" is a fierce ending, calling out false ideas of what peace is and who brings it. Vera Sola's vocals are clear, confident, and ever so icy, not holding back how her experiences, both personal and systemic, have shaped her.
The path towards peace does not end with rolling over and once again making yourself smaller and more palatable for the desires of others.
The path toward peace is one with autonomy, dignity, and beauty.
