SAVARRE™, the audacious sonic vessel helmed by the polymath force Shannon Denise Evans, offers “Unbeautiful” – a four-minute-eleven-second gut punch of spectral rock that doesn’t just defy convention – it stares it down with smudged eyeliner and a defiant sneer.
Evans, also known as “Storyweaver™,” isn’t crafting mere pop confections. Growing up an island misfit outside Seattle, forged in the crucibles of New York and Los Angeles theatre and music scenes, she channels a lifetime of being told she doesn’t fit – “bullied, chastised, judged, overlooked, underestimated” – into raw, unapologetic art.
From the first jarring invocation – “Bring the Shaman—I think I’m ill. Summon the Seer—for I am blind” – Evans plunges us into a gothic rock. Her voice, a remarkable instrument shifting from a soulful ache to a soaring, almost ethereal wail, navigates valleys “dark and cold” and mountains “sharp and high.” The production (courtesy Evans, Dylan Glatthorn, and Alex Venguer) is a masterclass in spectral atmosphere. Guitars slash and shimmer, weaving through the dense, moody tapestry like shards of broken glass catching the light.
The lyrics are a poetic exorcism. Evans conjures archetypes – the Shaman, the Seer, the Cleric, the Liar, the Soldier – seeking answers, escape, or perhaps just witnesses to her unraveling. The chilling, recurring vignette of “Little girls, they hear it right, Lie-n-wait on dusty beds” speaks volumes about the insidious whispers of inadequacy planted young. But the core, the razor-edged hook that lodges in the brain, is the brutal, liberating mantra:
“You’re unbeautiful. . . but you’re free.
You’re unbeautiful. . . your face so unkind.
You’re unbeautiful. . . and you’ll always be,
Two steps ahead while this ‘pretty’ falls behind.”
Evans reclaims the insult, twists it into a badge of honor. Being “unbeautiful” becomes synonymous with freedom, with cunning, with endurance. “Beauty is the violence that you find,” she snarls later, suggesting true allure lies in the scars, the struggle, the unvarnished self. The bridge crescendos into a near-triumphant repetition: “You’re unbeautiful. . . so unbeautiful. . . you’re unbeautiful, but, baby, ain’t you free. . .” It’s a soul-rattling wail of emancipation.
“Unbeautiful” is a genre-bending fusion where rock’s aggression meets art-rock’s ambition, theatrical flair, and electronic textures, all bound by raw emotional truth. Evans, with her powerhouse vocals and fearless lyricism, is the perfect avatar for this sound. Her pedigree – WGA, SAG-AFTRA, Dramatists Guild, et al. – is evidence of a storyteller who understands how to wield drama and sound for maximum impact.
“Unbeautiful” is a stark, beautiful, unsettling monument built for the outliers, the oddballs, the ones perpetually two steps ahead while the conventional notions of “pretty” gasp to keep up. It’s Shannon Denise Evans spinning darkness into a fierce, undeniable light, reminding us that true freedom often looks startlingly, defiantly, unbeautiful. And in that defiance, there’s a power prettiness can never touch. Play “Unbeautiful” now, and let the liberation rattle your bones.
