After dazzling us with a succession of post-hiatus gems, L.A. singer Kadhja Bonet has continued her foray into more emotive terrains with her typically engrossing new single and video, “Dear Gina”. After the synth-pop of last year’s single “For You”, followed by an irresistible, lush re-imagining of the same track, “Dear Gina” stays within the retro synth scope but explores the more subdued, atmospheric side, at times invoking intense 80s film montage scenes, or possibly a scene in which the main protagonist has a deep emotional realisation in soft focus.
“Dear Gina” is intended as a companion piece to the song “Delphine”, from Bonet’s last studio album, 2018’s Childqueen. In “Delphine”, Bonet takes on the guise of a controlling, gaslighting husband denying his wife her personal freedoms and taking issue with a mysterious letter she has written to him. In “Dear Gina”, the contents of that letter are revealed. With a coolly dispassionate “All the best, hun,” the downtrodden spouse breaks free of her husband’s tyranny and begins life anew.
“Dear Gina, you have a spark
You’ll keep it bright through the dark
And I will be so happy to see you light
Wherever you’re headed though it’s not for me”
Kadhja Bonet is given all the space she needs to perform her exhaustive meditation on a sadly prescient topic as she has run of the warehouse, accompanied only by a haunted keyboard and a hypnotic, industrial rhythm which understands the true power of negative space. Bonet’s voice is reaching us with crystal clarity from the spirit realm, with a self-awareness that helps “Dear Gina” deftly sidestep the most derivative tropes of balladry. As with her previous music video for “For You (Many Selves Version),” simplicity is key. The video uses visual techniques that would have been the height of sophistication in the ’80s but now imbued with a sense of ultra-modernism that playfully bounces off the retro aesthetic. Melodramatic dance moves are executed in a pastel-lit studio while Bonet delivers her lines partially obscured by shadow, her detachment reflecting Delphine’s feelings towards her captor and teasing emotional connections coming soon. It would be easy to lump Bonet’s recent singles in with the 80s revivalist trend, but that would be doing her art a disservice. Though she uses the era as a springboard, there is a depth to her songs which transcends the medium, and not even the inclusion of a key-tar could dilute that. Buy “Dear Gina” here and check out Bonet’s profile on Ninja Tune.
