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Mar 25, 2022 By Mark Redfern

Cassandra Jenkins and Wednesday have both shared new songs, “Pygmalion” and “Feast of Snakes,” as part of Secretly Canadian’s 25th anniversary SC25 Singles series. All net proceeds from the songs will benefit Secretly Canadian’s $250,000 fundraising goal for New Hope For Families, which, like the label, is based in Bloomington, IN and is described as a “gender-inclusive emergency housing solution.” Listen to the songs below.

Jenkins’ track was recorded live at Abbey Road Studios, where she was backed by the members of Glaswegian band Lylo.

Jenkins had this to say about the song in a press release: “The lyrics in this song revisit the story of Pygmalion, the Greek mythological figure who, scornful towards women, falls in love with an ivory statue of his own making. When the sculpture comes to life, they live happily ever after. Through today’s lens, we might view this as a tale of an incel who falls for his ivory sex doll, and one that lacks any trace of the female voice. I wanted to give the statue a chance to speak, and to address Pygmalion directly as he begins to carve her likeness according to his vision.

“The result is short and bittersweet, expressing part menace, sarcasm, and exhaustion, and part lucidity. I wrote it in a moment when I was frustrated by a relationship, and recorded it while I was on tour (at Abbey Road Studios). I was thinking about how easy it is to box each other into molds, and to impose our solipsistic ideals upon other people, only to be disappointed when they exhibit their true character. In that equation, everyone misses out, and there’s so much more to be gained from burning down ancient ideals. This song aims to strike the match.”

Wednesday’s contribution was inspired by the music of Secretly Canadian artist Jason Molina. Frontwoman Karly Hartzman further explains: “I 100% ripped off the chords for this song from Jason Molina’s ‘Almost Was Good Enough.’ When I wrote it I had just finished reading his biography Riding With the Ghost which has a ton of information about Molina’s music and by extension the beginnings of Secretly. I thought channeling his music for our contribution to SC25 would be fitting!

“The lyrics are inspired by Harry Crews’ novel Feast of Snakes. So much of the darkness in that book is reminiscent of Molina lyrics. We wanted to keep the instrumentation pretty sparse and scary so it’s just me on vocals and guitar and Xandy on steel and banjo.”

Jenkins’ 2021 album, An Overview on Phenomenal Nature, was on our Top 100 Albums of 2021 list. Its single “Hard Drive” also landed in the Top 10 of our Top 130 Songs of 2021 list.

Read our interview with Jenkins, where she discusses the album.

In November 2021 she released the compilation album, An Overview on (An Overview on Phenomenal Nature), via Ba Da Bing.

In January we shared her cover of Animal Collective’s “It’s You,” one of the singles from our Covers of Covers 20th anniversary album, which is out now via American Laundromat.

Wednesday recently released the new covers album, Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ‘em Up. It followed their 2021 album, Twin Plagues.

Read our recent interview with Wednesday about Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ‘em Up.

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