Chloë Glover - "Demons" SINGLE REVIEW

Chloë Glover's been making waves in the UK folk-punk scene for a while now. She's had a brilliant year, launching her debut single Turn Back Time, completed two UK tours with Arms & Hearts and Joe McCorriston, recorded a brilliant performance for Sofar Sessions, and played several sets at 2000 Trees Festival, warming up for the likes of Beach Slang and Ducking Punches. Her engaging live performances have proved she's more than ready for a bigger audience, and her new single Demons is proof.

I first heard this song live at her performance at the Safe Gigs For Women Up North event in Bolton back in April, when I met Chloë for the first time. It was a passionate set bouyed by songs both funny (the brilliant 21) and emotional (Turn Back Time). All her songs are made memorable by her beautiful voice and sharp lyrics, but none more so than Demons. It's a song about mental health, discussing her own struggles while talking to a friend who's been going through rough times, and urging them to keep on fighting. "Please get up again," she pleads, "make it through one more day." It starts out as a delicate ballad, her lone electric guitar soaked in reverb, punctuated by occasional drum hits, gradually building with layers of guitar lines and sublime vocal harmonies. She's crafted something at once intimate and expansive, a warm, passionate song that's going to mean a lot to people.

I love the arrangement of this song - it suprised me at first, having been used to hearing a stripped-back acoustic take of it in live performances, but it works superbly. All the elements mesh together well - the irresistible guitar line after the first verse, the way the vocal harmonies ascend in the final chorus, the way everything dramatically pulls away at the end. "Baby, keep on fighting, and keep on pushing though," she croons in in the climatic chorus, "the world will keep on pushing, but darling, so can you."

Demons is a confident, heartfelt, and all-around brilliant song, which is why it's perhaps surprising its only Chloë's second single. Her touring and festival performances have evidently paid off, and if this is a taste of things to come, then we're in for a very exciting forthcoming release from one of my favourite songwriters in the scene.

Chloë Glover is donating profits of Demons to a mental health charity. Get it from Bandcamp on the 4th September.

Find Chloë on Facebook, Twitter and Bandcamp.