Note how the beginning of Beethoven’s Symphony #9 suggests an invocation, the calling down of energy in preparation for a focused explosion.

Hollie Cook’s “Ari Up” begins with something that works similarly. The voices suggest priestesses.

“Come let her fire blaze, come.” It is an invitation, an appropriate way to begin a song in remembrance of Cook’s friend, Slits singer Ari Up, who died a few years before this recording.

I call your name again again
(again, again, again)
Do you hear me now and then
(again, again, again)
The storm inside my soul is wild like your eyes
Your hurricane pulls me in and lightens up my life . . .

Finally, note how the first few bars of “Love on a Two Way Street” by the Moments provide a regal, almost processional opening. It is as if the space in which the singer recounts heartbreak must be safeguarded by way of this clearing out of space.

Thank you for reading.