“As much a snapshot of a damaged country as it is a personal narrative,” we wrote of Brittany Ann Tranbaugh‘s recent single ‘Pennsylvania‘ back in May, “[the] single follows a queer couple as they move from a liberal urban setting to their home in rural Pennsylvania […] the drive punctuated by second thoughts, uneasy vibes and a ‘radio blaring about divided times,’ but also an undeniable fondness for the familiar landscape too.” Tranbaugh’s style of country music is geared towards capturing this mood in all of its fine nuance, “where,” as we concluded, “fear, fury and bone-weary disappointment coalesce into one dense weight, and wry humour is perhaps the only way to lighten the load.”
With an EP on the way, Brittany Ann Tranbaugh has now released brand new single, ‘We Could Be Comets’. A snaking, smouldering song which burns steadily and quietly with a sense of longing, casting its gaze across the years to bring impressive depth to the yearning tone. “The night I met you / Old hotel, two doors down,” Tranbaugh sings, “heard someone singing / So I went following the sound / To a room full of bodies and bottles and bliss / I remember the way you smiled when I sang the fifth.”
The second verse jumps into the present, that same voice ringing just as clear eight years later, bringing all the old love back, albeit through a complicated situation of context and circumstances. So instead, in her compassionate and always controlled tone, Brittany Ann Tranbaugh suggests something different. Accepting that a happy ever after might not be possible, instead parcelling the feelings into brief moments which burn bright if only for a moment.
I know we’re both tangled up right now
If we’re being honest
I won’t ask to be your constant lover
Maybe I could be your comet