Ball of Wax 61 Songs: Gillian Frances – “Loose”

Anacortes’s Gillian Frances makes her Ball of Wax debut with “Loose” – and what a debut it is. I’m a sucker for a good dynamic build – a song that starts up close and quiet, all hushed reverby vocals and guitar, and, like a slow-motion explosion, gradually ramps up to the point where it feels like it might lift you off your feet. “Loose” does all of this and more, anchored by Gillian’s stark vocals, which morph over the course of the song from a hushed falsetto to a full-throated cry that pairs beautifully with the overdriven lead guitar providing the final layer of sonic swell to push the whole song off a cliff. (And yes, that sentence was ridiculous, but I make no apologies.) It’s an easy song to lose oneself in, making it a perfect match for the lyrical content, which seems to be about the unsettling feeling of losing oneself in another. Here, though, we are not unsettled so much as delightfully enveloped.