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Oct 16, 2024 By Caleb Campbell

Later this week, indie singer/songwriter Cashavelly is set to share her latest LP, Meditation Through Gunfire. The record arrives on October 18th and finds Cashavelly evoking an airy, meditative pop spiritualism, recalling artists like Weyes Blood or Tori Amos. Cashavelly first began her career in the world of dance before suffering a serious spinal injury that pushed her to explore her latent songwriting talents. She debuted in 2015 with her first album, The Kingdom Belongs To a Child, followed by her 2018 effort, Hunger, and 2021’s Metamorphosis.

Ahead of her latest album, Cashavelly has shared a pair of new singles, “Rewrite” and “More Than God.” Today, she’s back with another new track, “The Queen,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“The Queen” is a lush and glittery ode to self-sufficiency. Where many break-up songs are desolate and aching, Cashavelly turns the track into a celebration, doused with strings, synthesized percussion, and playful hooks. She twirls amidst the lilting melodies, offering a commanding presence alongside a posse of backing vocalists echoing the track’s chorus. Meanwhile, the lyrics find Cashavelly asserting her own independence, bucking against men who would control or constrain her: “I crawl on the table and upset the setting / Wax drips from my candles like a swan preening / I climb on the mantle and I skin my knees / Girls all grow up to be the last untamed beasts / He’ll get everything he wants but me / That’s what makes me the queen.”

Cashavelly says of the track, “I wanted to write an empowering break-up song. But it’s not just a break up of a relationship; it’s breaking up with an entire system, a government, a culture. It says, I don’t wish you harm, but you’re going to find out that losing me is the worst thing that could ever happen to you. Because I am, as every woman, the queen. I can leave and transcend this bullshit of tolerating abuse and apologizing for taking up space. The best thing that could ever happen to a woman is choosing herself above anyone else, and that is the most loving thing she could possibly do for them. If she frees herself, she frees everyone else. This is the true fairy tale. No one can reach her now unless they honor her worth, and they can only do that if they honor their own. She has so fully claimed her own story because she can walk away from anyone she loves who does not reciprocate. She’d rather grieve that loss than be disrespected…This song is permission to women to be the queen, tolerate nothing but Love, and tell your story.”

Check out the song and video below. Meditation Through Gunfire is due out on October 18th via UNCSA Media.