‘Fall Into The Lie’: the hauntingly pertinent new single from Glasgow’s alt-rock duo Saint Sappho

SINGLE REVIEW | SAINT SAPPHO – FALL INTO THE LIE by Martha Munro

In our fractured world, it often feels much easier to fall into nihilism rather than stand up and fight. For Zoe Young and Tammy Dyson, the DIY duo who make up Saint Sappho, this is a dangerous, addictive stance for the world to take, and with their striking new shoegaze single Fall Into The Lie, they’ve hit the nail on its ugly head. Using creative concepts and their ‘sounds like it fits’ approach, these two have created a hazy musical warning that will both entrance and challenge you, make you stop, and most certainly make you think. Fans of Radiohead, Massive Attack, and being ‘too political’ – this song is for you.

Based in Glasgow, the couple Young and Dyson have been writing, recording and producing their own music since 2022, with their alt-rock-esque debut EP Green Door coming out in January of 2023, sandwiched by a smattering of atmospheric singles. From Britpop to alt-rock to electronica, Saint Sappho range around their clear 90s influences to inject their own thoughts and flairs into the political side of music as well as the personal – and often both at the same time.

Fall Into The Lie – released 29th November 2024 – begins in a haze of shoegaze reverb and blurry, echoing vocals. The electronic foundations create a spacey, eerie feel, and Young’s vocals soon come in and elevate this, touched with an electronic harmonic quality and characterised by her skilful, lazy ease, like a toned-down Courtney Love. This immediately gives that crucial impression of nihilism and desensitisation, and through the use of religious metaphors for the political state of the world, the theme of power (or more accurately, the misuse thereof) is immediately established as the main concept behind the song.

As Dyson, sure and steady on her industrial drums, plunges the listener into the first, biting chorus, the reverb amps up, not to mention the synthesised bass with its disillusioning hum. The impact strikes true and surreal; here, the track really does imitate a kind of falling, the sense of being enveloped in the ghostly vocals and threat of ‘the lie.’

To fill out the sound, a keyboard line is added to the second verse, which weaves its way into the rest of the track and lifts the second chorus that little bit higher. The bitesize verses emphasise the all-important choruses, which are filled with thought-provoking rhetorical questions – ‘Where do you cry? / Who do you look for?’ The climax of elements is euphoric and dizzying, encapsulating that 90s-alt-rock style like an overexposed photo.

With a slippery guitar line sliding in the background, Saint Sappho come to a short post-chorus deviation, with Young embodying two voices: that of the puppet, and that of its master. This develops as a drumless bridge, carpeted with strings that elevate the stunning lyrics, such as ‘Reading all the time / Bleeding from my eyes,’ which paint that picture of the onslaught of heavy news, filled with man-made horrors and seemingly inescapable fates. It is this that drives that contemporary longing to ‘fall into the lie’ of defeat and forget the pain.

And to really hit home, the final ‘chorus’ repeats and ingrains the hook over and over again, creating a hypnotic effect as the synthesised sound is amplified into a trance-like haze. Again, those muted, haunting backing vocals take the spotlight as the track slowly fades out, a final cry of desperation, muted, then silenced.

Dyson – the creative mastermind behind the duo’s creative projects such as music videos, photoshoots and graphic design – explained that in this song’s music video, the setting of the pool was integral; the water symbolises the weight of societal pressures and the feeling of being pushed down by those in power, always trying to speak but never listened to. The artistry of the song and its accompanying video is paramount, encompassing that all-consuming sense of meaninglessness in this vast (and vastly flawed) world.

While Fall Into The Lie is undoubtedly repetitive, it seems that this is intentional – and effective. Its steady, striking hook, its foggy electronic world, and Young’s embodiment of a shared, helpless mindset shape this song and its impact. This hypnotic track is both dreamy and drilling, a wail and a warning, a protest and a defeat; Saint Sappho have a single packed with nuance, nerve and potential.

In collaboration with BBC Introducing Live, Saint Sappho will play alongside Waverley. and Pedalo at Edinburgh’s Sneaky Pete’s. Tickets are on sale now.