Listen: Doe Paoro – “Walking Backwards”

Brooklyn, NY RnB singer-songwriter, Sonia Kreitzer (AKA Doe Paoro) has typically dealt in fairly straight-ahead soul and RnB: energetic and lively even on her slower jams. On her latest single, though, “Walking Backwards”, from forthcoming EP Ink On The Walls, Kreitzer sounds suddenly weary and disillusioned.

Over a terrifically spare and moody backdrop, Kreitzer paints us a picture of a veritable wasteland in which she wonders, “what will become of me?” Though expertly conveying her disenchantment with the world around her, Kreitzer’s vocals are wholly magnificent, peerlessly melding with the gloomy synths and dash of brass at the chorus.

As if summoning what vapors of energy that may remain, Kreitzer builds a beautifully resolute climax, declaring, “my body’s a mess”, over swelling horns and a rolling snare before she spills into the closing chorus, where she’s amped up the brass quotient and added buzzing flares of synths.

Kreitzer’s Doe Paoro Ink On The Walls EP drops this April on Middle West.