Words by Grace Kinter
Frisson is a French word meaning “a shudder, shiver, or thrill,” usually as a result of seeing or hearing something stimulating. The word was one of my best friend’s first tattoos, and even though she makes fun of it to this day (mostly because of its questionable place on her body), the word always stuck with me.
From a young age, I was drawn to strong female vocals for reasons I couldn’t quite fathom at the time. A few early childhood memories of songs come to mind: Alicia Keys in “If I Ain’t Got You,” Aretha Franklin in “Ain’t No Way,” and Olivia Newton John in, you guessed it, “Hopelessly Devoted To You” from Grease. These were vastly different voices from vastly different people from vastly different walks of life, but each performance had something in common: their delivery was full of palpable longing. Even if the listener is not in touch with their emotions enough or experienced enough to relate to what these singers are longing for, the body still reacts.
I find it fascinating that one can tune into someone else’s emotional experience, on a strictly sonic level, and have their own unprompted physical response. The singer is far away, not even in the listener’s realm of existence, yet they still elicit this effect. Not to mention when the listener takes it a step further and truly absorbs the words and the story of the song…then something even more magical happens. That’s the sort of thing that attaches you to a song forever, going back to it like a passed-down family recipe or an ex-lover whose touch you could never forget.
Sometimes, singers have one song (or a handful of songs) where they truly “take it there” with the vocal longing discussed above. We’re talking Chappel Roan’s “Kaleidoscope,” a drumless and haunting heartbreaker amidst playful, pop-forward bops like “Hot to Go” and “Naked in Manhattan.” We’re talking Kesha’s “Praying,” released in 2014 after it was revealed her brand-party tracks for debaucherous teens were tainted by the abuse from her then-producer.
Other times, a singer almost defines themselves by having those sad, emotionally charged, vocal-heavy hitters. Examples include Adele, Emeli Sandé, and Celeste. It would be unfair to say that these women can’t sing happy or joyful songs. I’d certainly listen to anything they put out. But it does feel as if they, and their voices, were given a purpose to show us that once pain is released into the world, it transforms.
One of the newer singers who burst onto the scene this year from TikTok, with a voice overflowing with beautiful anguish, is Sienna Spiro. Her voice has the perfect amount of rasp, and every performance she gives makes us feel like she’s reading from the most heartbreaking passage of her diary.
The irony is not lost to me that I’m writing about how much I love when singers sing songs so sad, they feel almost invasive to listen to in public. But I’ve always thought it was such a gift to take pain and turn it into something beautiful.
Whether you’re the one singing or the one listening, whether the song plucks at your inner thoughts or your body has an involuntary reaction, that’s frisson. Voices that yearn and long will always be my favorite, and I’m excited for the new voices still to come.
This article first ran in NYOTA’s Music issue. Read more from the issue here and purchase a print copy here.
