London’s Alexis Lace released “Stork” back in November as the fourth single from her album Silver. She wrote, produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered the entire track herself. The song deals with choosing a childfree life and the relentless judgment that comes with it, especially for women. Alexis Lace has decided not to have kids since she was young, and she’s spent her whole life fielding questions about it, being told she’ll change her mind, and dealing with men who thought she’d eventually give in. The track is blunt about that frustration and the double standard that exists around parenthood expectations, particularly how society assumes women should want children while men get a pass on the actual labor involved.
The rhythm in this song is unique. It’s something AI can never replicate; it’s full of little details and very human, creative choices that make it what it is. It doesn’t evolve much across the track because it serves the narrative, like all the other harmonic layers. The main event here is the powerful message conveyed through the vocals. The lyrics are incredibly striking and are blunt about the subject matter, which are absolutely necessary in my opinion because a subject matter like this doesn’t really work if the execution is shy about it.
“Stork” is labeled as one of the more serious and controversial tracks on Silver, and it earns that weight. Though it really shouldn’t be that controversial because it should be the common consensus that women get to decide whether they want to partake in the prolongation of the species’ existence by sacrificing their bodies or not, and Alexis Lace isn’t softening her stance or trying to make it palatable; she is speaking her mind through her art like an artist should.