Intense and anguished: NYC singer-songwriter Rebecca Karpen finds closure from the psychological abuse she suffered at the hands of a college mentor.

Release Date:  23^rd April 2024

Label: Self Release

Formats: Digital

Consolation and closure are things that we’ve all sought from music at one time or another, either by recognizing how a song’s lyrics crystallise an inner turmoil we’re suffering and offer a way out of that turmoil or, for those of us with the talent and will to do it, using lyrical and musical expression to say things that couldn’t be articulated any other way.  But it’s a rare event indeed, for a musician to expose raw emotion with the intensity and anguish that Rebecca Karpen manages to summon on her devastating new single, 23.

Rebecca Karpen has been making music now for around 10 years and she has an impressive stream of singles, EPs and albums to her name to prove it.  She’s got an enviable ability for combining humour, heart and honesty in her confessional songs – which she delivers with a passion that leaves the listener in no doubt:  here is a lady who MEANS what she says. She’s been known to describe herself as someone who “…plays baritone ukelele and cries a lot” and her influences include Jill Sobule, Laura Marling and Liz Phair.

Rebecca’s back catalogue may be crammed with songs of honesty and confession but, by her own admission, 23 is probably her most poignant song yet.  23 is Rebecca’s means of finding closure from the psychological abuse she suffered, as a student, at the hands of her college mentor.  The abuse is clearly an experience that affected Rebecca both deeply and lastingly, but the opportunity to use her song to share and purge her feelings has had massive therapeutic benefit, as she explains: “The effects of [the abuse I suffered] almost cost me my life as I inadvertently neglected my health.  I have never felt as free as I did after completing this song and I hope that you something of meaning for yourself in it.”

Perhaps the best way to express what 23 is all about is to take it a strand at a time, by considering the musical content, the lyrical content and the drama of the song’s delivery as separate aspects that combine to achieve a whole that is, without doubt, greater than the sum of its parts.

It’s the musical component that’s easiest to summarise because a song like 23 doesn’t need any showboating; Rebecca’s picked and strummed acoustic guitar is all that’s required – anything more would be an intrusion.  And the lack of any additional instruments or clever arrangements gives the listener the space to concentrate of Rebecca’s lyrics – and what lyrics they are.  I’m sure that her former mentor will get to hear them, and – by golly – he (or she) will squirm.

Rebecca pulls no punches as she sings lines like: “…Painted them as you I wanted you to be, but fantasies are commonplace for girls of nineteen,” “…Who’d expect a whole mind and body wrecked by a man who never deigned to lay a finger yet on his silly little side-project,” “I’ve never been more disgusted with the truth” and the couplet that, perhaps, summarises the enormity of what she endured: “No-one believes me, coz you make me sound insane, I’ve learned I’m not the first, but I’ll never know their names.”

These are lyrics that bite, even when they’re typed out on the bland background of a blank page but, when Rebecca sings them, they convey a wholly different level of intensity.  There’s a mix of true vulnerability and supreme confidence in Rebecca’s delivery, and anguish – and anger – are never far below the surface.  At times, it seems that she’s on the verge of tears, but articulate anger is the enduring emotion of 23.  You can almost see Rebecca’s recollections being purged as she pours them into the song.  23 is not just a song; it’s an experience.

By the way, we’ve heard on the grapevine that Rebecca is currently working on her debut album which, we understand, is to be called Edelweiss, Or Soundtrack To A Nervous Breakdown.  Now that’s something we’ll be watching out for.

Listen to 23 here:

Rebecca Karpen online: Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / Bandcamp / Spotify

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