If you keep up to date with the UK’s music scene, chances are you have come across Saam Watkins in one guise or another. Be it Playlounge, Nudes or Thalassocracy on Icecapades, Watkins has his fingers in all sorts of musical pies.
Well, Amber Sweet, a two song tape, is the latest release from yet another project, a solo venture under the moniker Pet Cemetery. The title track kicks things off, a brisk song which falls between Brit guitar music and shoegaze, the lyrics occupying that strange space where sleep won’t come yet full lucidity is lost.
“stop
do you wanna talk about
all the things left in last year
you pain pictures in my skull
so I can’t get to sleeplet’s listen to william &
list our insecurities
your back came undone
i’ll sew until my fingers
bleed”
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In the recent premiere of the track’s video over at Noisey, Watkins had this to has about it: “Amber Sweet was written 2 years ago and is the first song I wrote for Pet Cemetery, kinda to test the water. It’s about someone I didn’t get to know too well and don’t know anymore. It’s also about my favourite band William, Black Hole by Charles Burns, and how sometimes you can’t sleep because your brain has like a million thoughts and you’re so tired but you can’t turn your thoughts off.”
The second track on the release, ‘My Track ’92’, is what happens when punky kids write sad songs, slow and sad in a romantic way, reminiscent of the Washboard Abs album we reviewed a while back. The style leans more towards the bedroom pop end of the spectrum, with a wash of tape hiss ever present.
“we walk by the riverside
and we talk about our
futures and the things
we put in our hair
we walk by the riverside
and we talk
just to saythese small buildings
that house al of our
concerns
let the light in
like fireflies chasing birds
we spent our summer
sleeping outside
saying nothing ’til green
eyes fell tiredi don’t ever want to know”
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You can buy Amber Sweet now from the Havana Records Bandcamp page, and be sure to check out the Pet Cemetery back-catalogue too.
