"Girl in the Box," on her latest release, Bog Witch pulls a hauntingly beautiful folk ballad that bleeds a little more than initially meets the ears. Entwined in the mantle of illusion and misdirection, this number is a psychological stage trick transmuted into a gut-churning confession.
As she waded into the paranormal with her metaphor about the magician and his assistant, Bog Witch contorted into the incredibly creepy world of an abusive relationship. Here, the assistant or “box jumper” twists herself into impossible positions, not to earn applause but to survive. It’s a metaphor that stings, in which the magic we’re accustomed to equating with wonder becomes a prison of manipulation and control. Every lyric comes off like a whispered secret from behind the velvet curtain.
The song’s folk roots are sturdy and reassuring, but they’re splintered by contemporary turns, disorienting time glitches, and sonic warps that mirror the power imbalance the assistant confronts. These purposeful interruptions cause you to feel as if time itself is bending, much as it would for someone who becomes trapped in a toxic loop. The illusion of stability collapses in less than a minute, and that’s very much the idea.
What’s so remarkable is how human this track is. Bog Witch is not a creature of spectacle. Her voice is raw, the production intimate yet just a discovery of an old diary penned in invisible ink that becomes visible only when the light hits it just so.
"Girl in the Box" is a course in metaphor and mood. It is one of those extraordinary songs that you don’t just listen to but experience as if you were watching a friend perform a magic trick only to find out that the trick is a cry for help. This is folk music through a broken lens; tender and unsettling, to the point and personal.
Stream on Spotify.