Based in Brooklyn by way of Vermont, indie pop band Little Slugger are established around childhood friends Sam Bevet and Ben Chugg. However, in order to achieve their buoyant sound, the duo have enlisted a variety of band members since their first release in 2015. For their latest record, I Want To Live Here Forever, Liz Stafford, Tom Shahan and Grayson Webb are welcomed into the main band, with Nick Campolo, Willoughby Morse, Jim Osborn, Henry Webb, Joseph Chugg and Annabelle Maroney called upon at various points across the album to achieve its rich lustre.
Despite its bright blend of big guitars and atmospheric synths, I Want To Live Here Forever is a break-up record. However, far from mining the depths of melodrama like so many others, Little Slugger take a wider perspective on the situation, presenting not just the loss and longing but also the blank-slate freedom that the end of a relationship represents. As the press release puts it: “This is not a ‘sad’ or a ‘happy’ break-up album: it is everywhere in between.”
Today, we’re delighted to share the latest single from the record ahead of its release on the 19th July. Opening the album, ‘Impossible’ sets the scene, finding the the narrator in a post-break-up stasis where time ticks along but nothing changes. Facilitating the strange limbo is the persistent hope that reconciliation is still possible, that time and distance will lead to a clearer perspective and send the partner running back toward a newly-sincere domestic happiness. The realisation that such a hope is misguided dawns slowly across the track, points of clarity breaking through the fog that eventually build into a steady glow—a light at the end of the tunnel which the rest of the album proceeds to barrel towards.
I Want To Live Here Forever is out on the 19th July and you can pre-order it from the Little Slugger Bandcamp page.
Photosby Meera Jagroop, album artwork by Julianna Brazill