Lead single ‘Reward’ comes from 22° Halo, the recording project of Philadelphia-based songwriter and producer Will Kennedy. We’ve followed 22° Halo for a good while, most recently with album Lily of the Valley on Tiny Library Records. An album which “displayed the easy lo-fi nature that Kennedy projects so well,” as we wrote, “small and soft indie pop songs that handle real-life struggles with a shining sense of hope.” Continuing this style, ‘Reward’ makes for the ideal introduction to True Names. Something in its gentle compassion embodies the project’s spirit, Kennedy’s familiar willingness to broach difficulties with empathy and warmth aligning perfectly with the mission set out by Worry Bead Records.

Album art by Sami Martasian

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The mischievous, frolicsome style is made clear from the intro of opening track ‘Beach House’, the pseudo-ironic title announcement (“The co-oh-ne!“) preceding a plucky and playful opening verse. There’s an innocence to the sound, but one more adolescent than childlike, the vocals balanced between earnestness and vulnerability and edged with antagonism too. But the latter is as much in self-defence as spite, a kind of school years jostling for fun and friendship with in-jokes abound, the days of falling out and making up within the same day, creating abstract loyalties on a whim that change as often as the direction of the wind.

The style extends right down to the way the tracks are put together. Often short and boisterous, these are songs of fickle rhythms, heading in one direction then pivoting in another on a flight of fancy. The guitars meander one moment and bounce off in jagged arcs the next, the vocals at times sugar sweet one and others confrontational. Songs that want to be your best friend but then do a double take, looking you up and down, twirling gum around around their finger with a cool detachment.

Photo by Julia Leiby

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Song list:

Options – Waiting
2nd Grade – Favorite Song
Alexander – Going to Sleep
Ryan Van Gonten – Fabrique
Haunted Continents – What Were You Born For?
Weakened Friends – Blue Again
Shybaby – Lazy Hazy
Frankie Valet – April
Primo! – You’ve Got a Million
Hypoluxo – Kentucky Smooth
Basement Revolver – Knocking
Dead Painters – Output
HALEY – Infinite Pleasure Part 2
Doe – Heated
Ing – Dust
Benjamin Shaw – Terrible Feelings!
internet boy crush – ghost friend
lowly loverboi – Dumb Phone
Dead Tooth – Liars
Kin Hana – You
Bodega – The Truth is Not Punishment
The Cordial Sins – Not Enough
Indoor Cats – Fun 2
Upstairs – Trust the Process
Sabriel’s Orb – Holding
John Atkinson – Bakwaves // Rye
Fanclub – Leaves
The Chairman Dances – Acme Parking Garage
Con Davison – Talk
Ivy Dye – Diminish
Elizabeth Owens – I Long
The Last Bison – Don’t Look Away
Our Fastest Typist – It’s Nice Outside, but My Head is Killing Me

You can find all of our monthly round-up posts here, and our complete array of mixtapes here.

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Wish you Were Here Tour is marked by its upbeat nature, retaining a sense of buoyancy even when describing more morose or troublesome situations. But that’s not to say the record is without a sad countershade, and indeed the 2nd Grade style could be described as an interplay between carefree progress and wistful retrospect. Opener ‘Favourite Song’ certainly errs on the second side of the equation, melancholic in comfortable way, where sadness is another version of fondness.

Tracks such as ‘No More Parties’ and ‘There’s Something I Should Tell You’ add an injection of loose-limbed energy, conjuring summer days of no plans and high cloud, while ‘Bad Idea’ and ‘Smart Enough’ are more contemplative, the warmth here derived from Gill’s humanistic nature rather than any environmental source. This sense of empathy and connection is intrinsic to all of the songs, from the frenetic ‘Knock Knock’ and lo-fi garage rock of ‘As Long As We Can Talk About It’ to the gentle longing of the title track, the binding skeleton around which Gill is free to experiment and mix up the 2nd Grade sound.

Which goes some way to explaining the themes of the record, too. With the title in mind, a sense of longing is omnipresent across the album, be it for another person or place or time entirely. However, rather than being the hollow escapism of much nostalgia, 2nd Grade use yearning as a mode of living and learning, as though the passing of things both good and bad lend life a comforting sense of flow. Gill evokes the past not in the hope of returning to it or recreating its dimensions, but rather as a way to remain mindful of the present. To not get bogged down in the moment, but rather lie back and float upon the current.

We’re delighted to be able to stream the record a few days before release, so grab your headphones, sit back and relax:

Cover design by Jon Samuels, photo by Abi Reimold

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