Earlier in the month we introduced I Went Swimming / Home Among Your Bones, the brand new 7″ double single by Exeter trio Soot Sprite on Specialist Subject Records. The first track applied the band’s signature style of catharsis and defiance to the theme of personal relationships, “its thundering momentum and impassioned delivery,” we wrote, “typifying Soot Sprite’s willingness to stand up to all that is toxic and wrong.” A fitting sound for a song about “recognising a red flag in your relationship and emotionally shutting down to that person and cutting things off,” as lead Elise Cook explained. “Some people describe this as getting ‘the ick’ but that feels like a trivial term. Sometimes we have to learn from our mistakes and protect ourselves and that’s exactly what this is about.”
With the release now out, second single ‘Home Among Your Bones’ offers the counterpoint to its predecessor, celebrating those relationships in which the opposite is true. Such a positive and openly earnest tone might seem something of a departure for the band, but the effect is to make the entire release more convincing. A refusal to romanticise difficult relationships, a determination to learn lessons and live more healthily. “Who would wish for turbulence,” as Cook sings in the opening lines, “I’ve got everything I need here.” As she goes on the expand:
This is a song about feeling happy and safe in a relationship. I wanted to capture the joy of feeling love with someone without feeling insecure and sad which is something very new to me. I wrote it not long after moving in with my partner, it was and still is such a happy time, and it felt weird to put that into words to be listened to by the world. Ultimately it’s how I feel, and that’s how I’ve always written. It’s nice to be cringey sometimes!