Back in the summer we teased Internal Drone Infinity, the new album by Winnipeg’s Living Hour released by Keeled Scales (US), Paper Bag Records (Canada) and Beloved Records (Australia). “What the band themselves have coined ‘yearn-core’,” we wrote, “their style combines slowcore, indie rock and dream pop into something shaded by the gauzy texture of memory. The record was in part inspired by lead Sam Sarty’s time as a cinema projectionist, and it exists in a similarly otherworldly setting, its dark backdrop illuminated by a wistful glow.” Yet, as lead single ‘Wheel’ highlighted, the ethereal tones of this style are counterbalanced by a tangible weight too, Sarty’s often hushed vocals elevated by pounding drums and soaring guitars.
With the release of Internal Drone Infinity now just a day away, Living Hour have returned with new single ‘Best I Did It’. A song, like The Weakerthans’ ‘One Great City!’ before it, which uses the dismal skies and cityscape of Winnipeg as a kind of mirror, evoking a personal lethargy and lack of colour. “Preparedness for transformation / Performance posthumous display / Of some grizzly bits of pigeon on the side of the highway,” Sarty sings in the opening lines. “Everything’s bright gray / Can’t tell if it’s real, or just in the way.” But for all of its sombre gloom, the track refuses to settle within the leaden environment, each chorus like an upward grasp towards something brighter in the hope of piercing the clouds. “I imagine myself ten years from now looking back at this song and thinking of all the ways I’ve tried to heal myself,” Sarty explains, “and saying I did the best I could. I’m doing the best I can.”
But I’m like the road bird
Head curled in, dead, from all it’s thinkingBut it’s the best I did it
Watch the video made by Ryan Steel below:
Internal Drone Infinity releases today via Keeled Scales, Paper Bag Records (Canada) and Beloved Records (Australia). Order a copy now from the Living Hour Bandcamp page.
