Sälen - Copper Kiss

By now, glitter-dusted Londoners Sälen have carved themselves out a solid niche; sugar-coating poisonous destruction with a healthy dollop of pop. ‘Diseasey’ was the distant, left-leaning cousin of Britney’s ‘Toxic’ in both basic sentiment and banger potential, while ‘The Drwg’ dabbled in dangerously addictive lust. And with their latest, ‘Copper Kiss,’ it’s a theme that Ellie Kamio and co. continue to roll with.

Over a punchy, muffled pulse, Kamio sings in deceptively sweetened vocals. Lyrically, it’s a lot darker; taking a ill-advised tryst in a darkly physical direction. Split skin, broken bones, and the metallic sting of a violent lip-bite stain her clothes; a constant reminder of a negative relationship that even a Vanish bar will struggle to remove. “Pour your metal in my mouth, lick my lips and taste yourself,” goes the saccharine chorus, over sparse plods of bass. Pardon the pun, but this one is a bloody banger.