Rock & Roll Globe premieres ‘Sentimental Pessimism Part 2’

From Tammy Wynette to Marvin Gaye to Kacey Musgraves, divorce has been an unfortunate muse for some of the all-time greats in popular music.

For her sixth LP, The Starter Wife, Daphne Parker Powell places her own stamp on the concept of ruptured nuptials in her own distinctive sonic feel fans of PJ Harvey and the Cowboy Junkies will appreciate. 

“This album is an exercise in radical trust,” she explains of the album’s theme. “Younger me believed his vows to have and to hold, love and cherish, through good times and bad, in sickness and health, til death do us part. He proved himself fiercely unworthy of it, and despite the myriad flags, I charged forward – heart first. Instead of choosing to steel myself against future pain, I decided to let myself stay vulnerable, and even open my heart wider than I ever had. This album is my honest look at abandonment, codependency and grief.”

Daphne Parker Powell The Starter Wife, self-released 2022

The Rock & Roll Globe is honored to premiere a video from The Starter Wife for the song “Sentimental Pessimism Pt. II,” a track that quintessentially encapsulates the crux of this particular song cycle.

“More pessimistic than sentimental, I guess, this one was a particularly world weary moment,” the New Orleans-based Powell tells Rock & Roll Globe. “When you step back, look at your situation as if you were floating above yourself, you see all of your mistakes in real time. There are moments when you just have to laugh to keep from crying, because there’s nothing in your power to stop the inertia. This song is a snapshot of that metallic taste in the mouth you get when you realize we are all just making it up, getting by with the spare tools we have. The trite reality that while the journey is the destination, it can be a damn hard road.”