I’ve always wanted so badly for Milla Jovovich to become a full-fledged pop star.
She was once, at least for a little while: Back in 1994, the gorgeous model/actress/designer/slayer of all zombie mutants released her first (and only) studio album, The Divine Comedy, released at age 19. Colored by dreamy folk-rock, poetic lyricism and lush vocals, Divine was hardly the typical dance floor fodder of today’s frothy actress-gone-singer fare, comparable instead to that of Kate Bush, Tori Amos and Sinead O’Connor.
Since then, Milla’s floated in and out of the music scene: A trippy late night series of electro-folk recording sessions with songwriter Emit Bloch dubbed The Peopletree Sessions made its way onto the net in ’98 (despite Milla’s wishes). She’s also contributed her vocals to a smattering of singles, like Crystal Method‘s “I Know It’s You” in 2004, and occasionally posts unreleased demos to her official website.
Over the weekend, Milla introduced a brand new (official!) single called “Electric Sky,” crafted with producer Stuart Zender, former Jamiroquai bass player & founder, and co-produced/arranged by Chris Brenner and Milla. There was also some sort of mentor-like involvement from American Idol‘s own Randy Jackson (!)–hear her talk about working with him over at KCRW.
Like her work with Crystal Method, Milla’s gone and incorporated a little bit of a more electro-leaning sound into her music. “With you I’m blind, all I see is your eyes/With you in my life, caught in your electric sky,” she purrs on top of brooding synth-pop pulse. Forgoing the Guetta-style club synthesizers in favor of something more New Wave disco, “Electric Sky” is reminiscent of early Ladytron, Goldfrapp, and maybe even some Róisín Murphy.
I’m more than slightly obsessed.
In addition to releasing the song, Jovovich also performed the track live in Vienna at The Life Ball over the weekend. Check out the incredibly strange, trippy capture of the performance right here, which more or less looks like Resident Evil as interpreted by Cirque De Soleil. Way into it.
According to the singer herself, Milla’s planning to release an EP late summer or early fall. Huzzah!
“Electric Sky” was released on May 18. (Amazon)