American Songwriter premieres new song, Oscar Wilde, by Marchelle Bradanini
“Oscar Wilde” is Bradanini’s second single as a solo artist following “Red White & Blues.” Both tracks are heavy-hearted folk numbers carried by Bradanini’s deep, aching vocals. But “Oscar Wilde” is especially biting.
Only A Woman—produced by Adam Landry with Amy Wood on drums—is out July 3.
Marchelle Bradanini—the Los Angeles singer-songwriter best known for her work as Pony Boy—has a message for mansplainers who quote Oscar Wilde.
Today Bradanini premieres her new single “Oscar Wilde” with an accompanying video via American Songwriter. She also announces her debut solo album, Only A Woman, which arrives in July.
“Woe is you and your Bachelor’s degree / Studied the classics and poetry / You’re no Voltaire or even Robert Bly / and you’re certainly not the first to quote Oscar Wilde,” Bradinini croons in the song over sauntering steel, twangy guitar, and easy percussion (Nashville singer-songwriter Tristen provides dreamy backing vocals).
“Let’s have another drink and I’ll pretend I care / you can play the misanthrope and I will twirl my hair / until my disdain for your apathy I can no longer hide / so please no more talk or quoting Oscar Wilde.”
The track was partially inspired by Father John Misty’s “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment.” “There is a brilliant take-down of a certain type of woman Father John Misty eloquently eviscerates in [that song], which features the lines, ‘She says, like literally Music is the air she breathes and the malaprops make me want to fucking scream. I wonder if she even knows what that word means, Well, it’s literally not that,’” Bradanini tells American Songwriter.
“It’s so clever and witty and disemboweling, but also piqued my curiosity about the woman’s POV and her actual culpability in the exchange. Moreover, it spurred me to the larger issue of women who have encountered a certain type of misanthropic, barroom bard who speaks at and over us with a stunning sense of intellectual superiority and deafness, all while wearing a feminist pin on his vintage lapel.”
“Oscar Wilde” was also inspired by the cover of Leonard Cohen’s 1977 album Death of a Ladies’ Man. “He’s flanked by two gorgeous, yet partially edited women,” Bradanini says of the visual. “They are minor characters who service the leading man. Now I am a massive fan of both these songs and artists, but found myself yearning for the voices of their muted muses. I’ve also run across a certain type of Oscar Wilde-quoting mansplainers that I wanted to immortalize in song.”