Staring Into Water – Monique Grimme feat. Sapphire Star Studios (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Across several scintillating releases over the last year, Monique Grimme has carved out a niche for herself in a place where musical creativity exists alongside lyrical depth, where she errs, more often than not, on the side of understatement, but proves that her brand of sonic less makes for a song that is so much more.

Her latest single, “Staring Into Water,” not only sees her dancing along that fine line but does so perhaps more delicately and deftly than she has before. In the past, she has easily demonstrated that she is comfortable reconciling such attractive opposites. Here, she proves that she owns that territory.

Monique’s music always has an element of the philosophical about it, an ability to take motifs and metaphors, images and ideas from the real world and use them to impart not just wisdom, but wisdom born of personal experience. And so it is here. Without going into specifics, Monique uses the song to express and explore themes of personal growth, moving past vulnerability and challenges to emerge as a stronger, more resilient, more rounded person.

Of course, such sentiments need the right music to deliver them, and with “Staring Into Water,” we find she has ushered in the perfect balance of meaningful lyricism and majestic melody. Even though the song is often one of restrained beats and spacious piano lines, elegantly wrapped in serene strings, it is just as much shaped by occasional sonic highs and anthemic sweeps that rise up to break the hushed spell, before returning to such seductive territory to beguile us once more.

It is this gentle juggling of the melodic and meaningful, that deft footwork between balladic beauty and soaring crescendo, those vocals that run from a hushed, intimate whisper to sonic highs, and the interplay between personal experience and timeless storytelling that make this such a rich and rewarding experience.

And timeless is the right word. Ancient cultures saw water as a gateway into other worlds, and so it is only right that even in contemporary times, we see it as a mirror for different versions of ourself, that image gazing back being less a reflection of our present self and more an version of who we want to be, and who we might, and indeed can, be from now on.

Although in the past, I have likened Monique’s brand of music to such stalwarts as Stevie Nicks, and there is certainly still an element of that in the more upbeat songs, I would say that “Staring Into Water” is the song where she throws off any easy reference points and emerges as an artist with a sound and style, not to mention a feeling and vibe, all of her own.

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