Italian artist Tying Tiffany is known for creating electro-pop tracks with a dark edge, “music that teeters between opaque moodiness and brightly saturated electronic textures” (The Owl Mag, 2013) – as befitting one whose stage name was inspired by a photographer like Nobuyoshi Araki (a simple Google search of his work will give you a clear idea of what kind of aesthetic she’s going for (in case the album artwork for One (2013) didn’t make it clear).
Vents Magazine describes the appeal of opening track ‘One Second’ succinctly: “[it] sets a shadowy, mysterious tone with a foundation of deep, swirling instrumentation, haunting lyrics, and an echoing chorus.” The repeated lyrics – “One second in my head, my head my” – seem to be both an invitation to enter a dark and dreamy mind, and a lyrical cry of distress from a persona grappling obsessively with something within her psyche.
The verses are beautifully cryptic, evoking an abstract and sinister inner dissonance that can’t be easily resolved, juxtaposed against an upbeat and repetitive soundscape:
“The second to last time can be tomorrow
Only be something we'll find the answer
Living in my dream, fight for my cause, but it's so hard
The second to this time it's a poison arrow
Only be one frame will freeze the answer
Leaving this place away from my house through the backyard
The second to last time can be tomorrow
Open to no game I'm not your dancer
Living in my dream, fight for my cause, but it's so hard
The second to this time it's a poison arrow
Straight to my heart right in the center
Like a misfit away from my house whistle past the graveyard”
Tying Tiffany’s lightly-accented vocal delivery and loose syntactical constructions help create the track’s suggestively opaque (yet clearly ominous) atmosphere, luring the listener in for multiple repeats of the track, motivated by the vague hope of unravelling its dark, inscrutable mystery.
