Sky Ferreira Is Back And Gloomier Than Ever On 'Downhill Lullaby'

For the initial time in six years, Sky Ferreira rises — in darkness. Her grand return is the gloomy "Downhill Lullaby," a long, sensual, bleeding episode of malaise. Its dark nature is sexy and at times, punishing. It makes sense that it will appear on her upcoming album Masochism, which is defined as "the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from one's own pain or humiliation." Sky is back. And her teeth are fanged.


"Downhill Lullaby" is slow and sexy; it takes a full minute for the tune to get out of its stretched out string introduction. Each rim flick is calculated. Ferreira's voice comes floating into the air like it's kitchen steam from under a closed door. It necessitates the floor softly and expands.


Her voice has never sounded better. There's a darkness in its calming hands that massage the nape the shoulders relax. Just as it grows in presence, it retracts and grows again. Her words slice the skin bloody raw ("You ripped me open / Then you kiss me / Blue lips and roses / That you abandoned me) and you're left to lick the wounds any time as soon as she disappears into the drowning bass line that centers the song. It's a transfixing disaster, a brilliant reintroduction that creates a new atmosphere untethered to the past. It's a powerfully dark fog, nevertheless it's one that she thrives in.


Sky recently revealed in a new Pitchfork/a> cover story that dropped on Tuesday (March 26) that "Downhill Lullaby" was produced by Twin Peaks music supervisor Dean Hurley along with features strings from Danish violinist Nils Gröndahl. She also previewed another new track, called (for right now) "Don't Forget." Both tracks will appear on her forthcoming, oft-delayed Masochism LP that looks to finally be on the horizon.


Check out the slowing, intoxicating record above.