Genevieve Stokes Tunes Out The Noise In Returning Single “Medicine”
Photo via Genevieve Stokes.
A little over a year since dropping her debut album, With a Lightning Strike, lyrical sorceress Genevieve Stokes slowly makes her return with her second single, “Medicine,” a bewitching, piano-forward soireé that has the spirit of the 90s cult classic film, Practical Magic, written all over it.
After embarking on her own headline tour in 2024, the Portland, Maine-born singer-songwriter spent last April opening for Role Model’s final show on the NO PLACE LIKE TOUR run. Since then, she’s been at home soaking in the New England sun and soil –– and teasing unreleased songs behind her piano. Her stripped-back, harmony-strewn single, “Charming,” announced in October finally marked the long-awaited end of her hiatus. “Medicine,” however, marries together the enchanting elements of With a Lightning Strike and her 2023 EP, Catching Rabbits, and the product is nothing short of ordinary. Caught between witchy and whimsical, Stokes shines best in this sweet spot, solidifying her status as a generational storyteller in the indie-folk-pop realm.
Without missing a beat, Stokes’ signature pattering piano keys drift in, an instrument she’s masterfully threaded throughout her discography as a secondary voice. “I was battling everything, ‘til medicine met brain / Now I can’t remember anything, it’s perfectly plain,” she recounts before a candlelight. It’s as if she’s sat in the hot seat, asked to share an account of everything before the medicine.
But barely less than a minute in, the track unfolds a story that proves to be more than meets the eye. Like a choreographed ballet dance, her vocals twirl around a sudden arrangement of hammering strings as she sings with striking conviction. With outstretched hands toward healing, the medicine washes a sense of freedom over her, and while unclear from what, she tells us that all she wants is to forget.
Each chorus acts like a sharp break in between Stokes’ narration, like the release of a breath that’s been withheld. She’s a puppet on a string pulled on her own accord, wandering through corridors that lead deeper into numbness. “I don’t feel you now,” she harps on, as if the refrains are attempting to convince her she’s released from the emotional toil.
“Spoonful, spoonful / Mind is immune and so useful,” float like incantations atop lurking keys. Buried deeper within the production are sound bites of Stokes’ laughter at certain moments, adding a thicker air of mystique to the track.
Has the medicine healed her, or has it numbed her of all feeling? Stokes toys with this idea, leaving her testimony for us to decide. A new chapter dawns for the singer, and all fingers point to the project being her most celestial body of work yet.
Her single, “Medicine,” is out now on all streaming platforms.
