Last month we previewed Anniversary & More Songs About Love, the deluxe version of Abigail Lapell‘s recent full-length which expands the album with eight additional songs. Alongside more intimate, acoustic versions of tracks from the original, Lapell also offers a handful of additional songs, and has now released a cover of Tame Impala’s Feels ‘Like We Only Go Backwards’ as part of the package. A minimal, electrified version of which mines the song for all of its stark weight, adding yet another dimension to the diverse picture of love and relationships which the album brings to life.

Anniversary & More Songs About Love will be released via Outside Music on 2nd May. Pre-order it now from the Abigail Lapell Bandcamp page.

Casper Skulls – Numbing Mind

The new album from Sudbury/Toronto indie rock outfit Casper Skulls, Kit-Cat is the product of a band confident enough to spread their wings. From the moody ‘Spindletop‘ and energetic ‘Roddy Piper’ to bittersweet Dylan-esque narrative ‘Dying in Eight Verses‘, each single offered a different style and set of influences, and culminated in a mosaic-like album able to confront a wide range of themes. With the release out now via Next Door Records, Casper Skulls have shared final single ‘Numbing Mind’ to further deepen the picture, exploring the vast media landscape of distractions into which we can retreat from contemporary existence. The song is itself a microcosm of the wider Casper Skulls style, presenting a collage of references (Ms. Rachel, Bob Ross, Macho Man, Rugrats, South Park, ASMR and Antique Roadshow and more) to paint the vast network of small comforts to which we turn.

Watch the video directed and edited by Bosmo below:

Kit-Cat is out now via Next Door Records and you can get it from the Casper Skulls Bandcamp page.

Classic Trucks – Oil

“Pairs a rich, warm sound with Jarman’s approachable, near-spoken vocals and a dark, distressed lyrical style. But instead of playing as a contradiction, the resulting track looks to solve the concern at its heart in real time, fashioning a cure to the complaint itself.” So we wrote of ‘Letting In Too Much Light’ by Classic Trucks last month, the first single from the new solo venture of Langkamer‘s Josh Jarman which introduced the empathetic nature of the project. With EP Century Songs set for release in late May, Classic Trucks are back with new single, ‘Oil’. A meditation on some of the grandest existential questions—free will, nature vs. nurture, the apparent futility of life—housed in a bright, pop-inflected brand of folk, again highlighting Jarman’s ability to approach difficult subjects without being overwhelmed by their weight.

Gay Meat – Champaign Ill

The recording project of producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Karl Kuehn, Gay Meat has made a name in recent years with a distinctive blend of self-deprecation and sincerity, something embodied by 2022 EP Bed of Every. Mixing indie pop, rock and emo sensibilities, the release clocked in at barely thirteen minutes but managed to evoke a compelling inner world all the same. Recent single ‘Champaign Ill’ builds upon the style, a wistful lo-fi ode to the ways in which people change over time, as well as those who stay the same despite everything. Again the tone possesses a wry edge, but one which does nothing to limit the unguarded earnestness at its heart.

Gum Parker – Crocodile

“Draws on the considerable DIY history of its members to create good old-fashioned indie rock.” That’s how we described the debut album from Portland, Maine outfit Gum Parker, with singles ‘Two Subarus‘ and ‘Hive‘ packing a real punch despite the vastly different moods which underpinned them. With the album out now via Repeating Cloud, the outfit have shared final single ‘Crocodile’, and the song again embraces the chaotic, irrepressible energy of the do-it-yourself aesthetic to find joyous momentum within ordinary life. “Lately I’m trying to just write down phrases or bits of language that I like and scrape together a song from them,” as lead Galen Richmond explains. “It seems to have worked out for this joyful mess. The chorus is sorta a half-joke about how I couldn’t write a chorus for this one.”

Jangus Kangus – No Future In This

Christened by Emerson Dameron as “LA’s foremost purveyor of imagist garage surf,” Jangus Kangus is making a name with a sound at once hazy and raw, with debut album Fortune Cookie highlighting how evocative and playful such a contradictory style can be. Lead Jasmine Sankaran is joined by Steph Anderson (keys/backing vocals), Antonio White (lead guitar/backing vocals), Dan Perdomo (drums) and Ryan Kellis (bass), and together the band eschew genre convention in favour of instinct experimentation. Single ‘No Future In This’ serves as an ideal introduction, a track which preserves some of the DIY spirit of the project’s previous releases yet comes wrapped in a golden retro hue.

LEYA – Corners (Chanel Beads Rework)

Last year we wrote about ‘Corners’ by LEYA, a single from their EP I Forget Everything on NNA Tapes which displayed how harpist Marilu Donovan and vocalist/violinist Adam Markiewicz create “evocative and ambiguous” soundscapes, as we put it, which “explore the avenues open to us in the face of catastrophe.” Like much of LEYA’s work, the song occupied a strange space between medieval and futuristic tones, feeling like both a throwback and a promise of something new. Now rising pop favourite Chanel Beads has reworked the track to further deepen this contradictory tension. With additional layers of lush sonic textures and extra pop polish, the new interpretation serves as a heightened version of the original, playing like the interstitial space between the Now and the Then with all the instinctive longing left intact.

Watch the self-directed video starring model Mariah Morvant below:

‘Corners (Chanel Beads Rework)’ is out now via NNA Tapes and available from Bandcamp.

LUCKY – Traveler

LUCKY are a new Bay Area supergroup featuring Half Stack‘s Peter Kegler, Andrew St James, Marika Christine and Zach Elsasser (Affectionately). A slice of upbeat country rock that also provides the obligatory shadow to its light, debut single ‘Traveler’ gives an indication of what to expect from the project. A song full of backward looking despite its forward motion, resulting in a mood at once wistful and affirming. Produced and mixed by Joe Santarpia (Mac DeMarco) and mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk (Kevin Morby, Woods, Rose City Band), there’s real talent behind the project too, making for a polished, accomplished sound that retains its authenticity via a subtle lo-fi edge.

Maryse Smith – Freedom

This May sees the release of Transience, the new full-length from Massachusetts songwriter Maryse Smith, via Ghost Mountain Records, and latest single ‘Freedom’ both introduces the album’s warm folk rock sound and furthers the thematic resonance of the its title. It’s a song about regaining a sense of ownership and agency in the face of apparent restriction, placing trust in the transience of any condition in the way all longing must. Fittingly, the track is the product of one such process of overcoming. “‘Freedom’ was written upon returning from a festival that friends put on every year in Vermont,” as Smith explains. “I didn’t play that year, I was feeling bummed about being in a long writing dry-spell and couldn’t bear the thought of playing songs I had written years prior. But I felt so inspired after seeing so much good music I pretty much came home, sat at the piano and wrote this. I remember feeling afterwards, on a deep level, that the dry spell was broken and it was.”

Steel Wool – Fading

What the band describe as “a collision of sound experiments wearing the borrowed work uniform of rock music,” the self-titled debut EP from LA shoegaze outfit Steel Wool brings together the varying tastes of each of its four members. Shoegaze fuzziness meets not only its natural bedfellows in dream pop and indie rock, but also folk and screamo too, resulting in something that uses familiar ingredients in a fresh and innovative way. “The band has always been more of a sonic game of tug-of-war than a regiment in lockstep,” Steel Wool continue. “Stepping outside these orthogonal backgrounds in search of common ground, we’ve ended up somewhere that isn’t quite home turf for any of us.” Opener ‘Fading’ is the best place to start, a hazy and soaring dream pop song that eventually boils over in a snarl of feedback and wailing vocals.

Yuno – Massive

Having won acclaim with 2018 EP Moodie and a number of subsequent singles, Jacksonville-based pop visionary Yuno is releasing debut full-length Blest this May with Sub Pop. An artist in constant flux, Yuno has moved from skate punk and Johnstonian anti-folk to downbeat pop across his career to date, and the new album not only continues this evolution but pushes the sound to its most expansive, inventive spaces to date. Latest single ‘Massive’ embodies the sound’s widescreen richness, pairing languid pop confidence with fuzzy rock sensibilities to create a rueful backdrop for what is a reflection on the passing of time.

Watch the video directed and Edited by Yuno himself below:

Blest will be released on the 16th May via Sub Pop and you can pre-order it now.

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Last week saw the release of Melody Trail, the new record from the ever-prolific Sam Sodomsky’s The Bird Calls. Again put out by Ruination Records, the album in part deals with Sodomsky losing his position at Pitchfork after Condé Nast’s decision to absorb the site into GQ last year, pulling the rug from under his feet and throwing into doubt one of the last bastions of independent music criticism. But anyone expecting a minor key downer will be sorely disappointed, instead drawing on a range of left of centre pop and folk to create something quite unlike any previous The Bird Calls work. The title track is probably the best place to start, a catchy and breezy acoustic strum that somehow sounds both weary and hopeful, vowing to make a fresh start if not quite committing to actually doing it.

And I’m trying to get my life back
Riding on the right track
Time to move on

Born Ruffians – Mean Time

Having made their name in the indie rock boom of the 00s, Toronto’s Born Ruffians have constantly evolved over their near-two-decade lifespan, resisting the temptation to settle into a groove or rely on nostalgia to instead push their sound to new dimensions. Forthcoming this summer via Wavy Haze and Yep Rock Records, their new album Beauty’s Pride represents another reinvention, embracing change alongside the real-life experience of becoming a parent, as highlighted by lead single ‘Mean Time’. A “sort of autobiographical/speculative non-fiction inspired by Nabokov’s beautiful autobiography Speak, Memory,” as vocalist/guitarist Luke Lalonde puts it. “It’s about those two black voids, the before and the after, and all of the extraordinary moments in between.”

Beauty’s Pride is out on the 6th June via Wavy Haze Records and Yep Roc Records.

Cameron Knowler – Felicity

CRK, the (quasi-)self-titled by Arizona musician Cameron Knowler forthcoming on Worried Songs, is fundamentally a record of time and space. A meditation of Knowler’s hometown of Yuma, Arizona both in its physical presence and historical weight, all achieved via a style of instrumental folk both traditional and visionary. Together with a video featuring local landmarks ranging from the purple Gila Mountains to lettuce fields and a long abandoned adobe prison, single ‘Felicity’ offers the listener an introduction to this style. A soundscape littered with features of the past, indeed shaped by their weight, yet one which is neither overburdened by the load nor bewitched by the seductive will to return to that former place.

Watch the video shot, edited and directed by Steven Perlin below:

CRK will be out on the 4th April via Worried Songs and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Elskavon – How Cold

Elskavon’s new album Panoramas, coming this summer via Western Vinyl, sees Chris Bartels continue to evolve the project, drawing on everything which came before but finding a novel form. As lead single ‘How Cold’ shows, this involves challenging preconceptions of genre and style, crossing boundaries and questioning conventions, be it around what exactly a song or album can be, or indeed the role vocals can play within this. This exploratory mindset allows for a real authenticity to develop, creating an emotional resonance unhindered by any constraints. “This album is a deep dive into everything that’s shaped me as a creator,” as Bartels explains. “My favorite songs and albums are tied to memories and seasons—beautiful, painful, grand, and small—and those experiences inform everything I do.”

Panoramas is out on the 20th June via Western Vinyl and you can pre-order it now.

Fake Dad – Machinery

Consisting of Andrea de Varona and Josh Ford, LA’s Fake Dad make crunchy pop rock that’s concerned with both having fun and making a point. With new EP Holly Wholesome and the Slut Machine on the horizon, the duo have unveiled single ‘Machinery’ to introduce this style. It’s a track which originated after a bad experience at a musical showcase, where female artists were forced to play into their own objectification in order to earn attention. “This song was written as a response to the way this kind of woman on woman (or more generally, artist on artist) hate perpetuates these spaces while the real culprits—our sick, sad society governed by narcissistic, billionaire white men—totally fly under the radar,” de Varona explains. “In the end, the man is the real one we’re calling out. The one that we’re sick and tired of watching get what they want, while we sit back eating from their palm.”

‘Machinery’ is out now and available at the usual places. Holly Wholesome and the Slut Machine is coming soon.

Hour – Hallmark (Live at Philamoca, Philadelphia)

Following on from beautiful 2024 album Ease the Work, a release we described in our review of last year’s best releases, as “perform[ing] the same small miracle of the previous records, presenting the everyday in all its joy and melancholy, comfort and strangeness,” Philadelphia ensemble Hour are returning this month with new live album Subminiature on Dear Life Records. Collected across two years of live performances, the album serves as what the label calls “a capstone for the band’s oeuvre to date,” offering versions of pieces from Tiny Houses and Anemone Red alongside brand new arrangements to best represent a project that’s always adapting and evolving. Different songs recorded at different shows, performed by a changing cast of musicians across various months and years, yet all linked by the same spirit. That vital piece of the Hour DNA which commits to such fluidity as a fundamental part of what the project represents.

Watch the video directed/edited by Matt Ober below:

Subminiature is out on the 14th February via Dear Life Records and you can pre-order it now.

Larum – O Virga Mediatrix (feat Bill Orcutt)

The recording project of Chet Doxas and Micah Frank, Larum combines woodwind and electronics to create a sound full of detail and intangible depth, something evident on 2022 EP The Music of Hildegard von Bingen Part One, which occupied a unique intersection between the early medieval and avant garde cutting edge. As the title suggested, the release was only the first instalment of the project, and this April Larum will return with appropriately named follow-up The Music of Hildegard von Bingen, Part Two. Again the result is almost paradoxical in form, managing to imbue the work of an eleventh-century theologian, mystic and composer not just with contemporary resonance but a sense of pioneering potential. Featuring guitarist and composer Bill Orcutt, single ‘O Virga Mediatrix’ embodies this aesthetic, the track representing a thread which stretches away from the present in both directions, inviting the audience to following towards the mysterious spaces beyond.

MacGregor Burns – Put It All On Me

Described as “a new wave sad boy anthem that is a longing cry to pass the blame,” ‘Put It All On Me’ is the latest single from LA-based singer-songwriter MacGregor Burns. Previous tracks ‘Silent Answers‘ and ‘Can’t Go Back‘ highlighted the artist’s idiosyncratic style, “combining nostalgic nods […] while forging a new path forwards, [looking] for further clues in the fertile space between the familiar and the new.” ‘Put It All On Me’ continues this vibe but with some stylistic differences. Namely the lack of guitar, leading to a decidedly wistful sound that nods to the likes of the Psychedelic Furs but nevertheless carries its own bright forward motion.

‘Put It All On Me’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Royal Oakie Records – Canyon Country: LA Fires Benefit Compilation

“[Displays] a sense of cohesion and togetherness which hints at the radical potential within the collective, something we need to remember now more than ever as the suite of challenges which marks the contemporary moment only widens and deepens,” so we wrote of if only i could fly, a compilation in support of those affected by the LA fires organised by  Little Mazarn, hemlock and Jolie Holland. But we could easily have been writing about Canyon County, the new benefit compilation from Royal Oakie Records too. Featuring a mix of unreleased and album tracks from the likes of Holy Matter, Half Stack, Michael James Tapscott and Lauren Helene Green, the comp is what the label describe as a “love letter to Los Angeles and its surrounding canyons and coastlines,” as embodied by the languid warmth of Sandy’s ‘Band Without A Song’.

The Taxpayers – At War With The Dogcatchers

Portland, Oregon emo outfit The Taxpayers might have been on hiatus from releasing new music for going on a decade, but this March puts an end to that. Released via Ernest Jenning Record Co., their latest full-length Circle Breakers reckons with the changes in the world in the time since their previous record, with understandably dark results. Alongside the global pandemic, continued climate breakdown and turn towards reactionary politics were a series of personal tragedies too, and the record sees The Taxpayers pushing through a seemingly unending experience of loss with both fury and hope for something better. Latest single ‘At War With The Dogcatchers’ draws on a run-in with the titular enemies after a deceased friend’s dog was seized and taken to a pound. A song about “loving the broken things in spite of the dogcatchers of the world,” as the band explain, “and trying to find meaning in those things amidst the tragedies.”

Watch the video by Preston Spurlock below

Circle Breaker will be released on the 21st March via Ernest Jenning Record Co. and you can pre-order it now.

Yael S. Copeland – 2AM

“Unable to lose the romantic notion that things can be different, can improve. Mellow Submarine looks for good thoughts amid the chaos, and might just have you believing they are just around the corner after all.” So we wrote of Yael S. Copeland‘s most recent full-length back in 2023, applauding the manner in which the Queens-based songwriter looks to preserve the small, fleeting moments within an often calamitous world. Detailing an after hours encounter between two receptive strangers, new single ‘2AM’ is no different, offering a distinctively nocturnal tone to conjure a sense of ethereal romance. A sort of lightning-in-a-bottle sensation both characters can only cling to while it lasts. “You know we / Will probably be / only friends / for this night,” as Copeland sings in the chorus, “Maybe till the morning?”

The post Weekly Listening: February 2025 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Royal Oakie also co-released Half Stack‘s Sitting Pretty alongside Forged Artifacts, an album which saw the Bay Area outfit evolve their sound in exciting new directions. “The record loosens its grip on the country aesthetic and in doing so allows all sorts of stylistic directions to show themselves,” as we put it last summer. “Psych rock, power pop, even a dose of honky tonk, each song opens up a new avenue to explore. But this unpredictability feels less like a band experimenting with possibilities as one finally able to embrace their fuller selves. The dusty cowboy aesthetic remains, but there’s more to Half Stack than that. Now they’re allowing their true spirit to shine through.”

To celebrate the year, Royal Oakie Records has released Greatest Hits of 2023, a compilation which collects the “fan favorites and deep cuts” from across their roster. All of the prior mentioned acts feature, as do Jeff Moller, Michael James Tapscott, Well Well Well, Whiskerman, Go By Ocean and Bard’s Flying Vessel. Listeners unfamiliar with the label can use this as the perfect primer, but equally, just as with Orindal Records’ recent compilation Powerful Forces Beyond Our Understanding, those already acquainted can come to appreciate the label more fully, with the chance to hear their artists back to back allowing fans to find the links and resonances between otherwise disparate projects.

Greatest Hits of 2023 is out now and available from the Royal Oakie Records Bandcamp page.

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Eli Frank is something of a fixture of the New York DIY scene, playing in the likes of Teenage Halloween, Punt and Winnebago Vacation. Latest project Bummer Camp is their first solo venture, an outlet for layered songs crafted from the basic ingredients of guitar, drum machine and loop pedal. Bummer Camp has just released its second EP, Big Deal, a record Frank says “tackles both the everyday and the everlasting impact of striving to create something meaningful.” Single ‘It’s a Pain’ is a good introduction, beginning as a taut indie pop song before exploding in cathartic noise in the final third.

Watch the video by multimedia artist Preston Spurlock below:

Big Deal is out now and available from the Bummer Camp Bandcamp page.

Diamond Grinder – Let Me Live with You

Back in June, New York‘s Diamond Grinder released their full-length Expectations via Perpetual Doom, an album which introduced the long-time (if intermittent) collaboration between songwriters Margaret Nygard and Eli Recht-Appel. Together with a huge, rotating cast of musicians, the pair create a folk-inflected brand of rock which manages to combine intimacy and dynamism, owing as much to seventies Americana as it does contemporaries such as Big Thief. Having just shared a new video directed and edited by Elizabeth Kroner for the slow-burning single ‘Let Me Live With You’, now’s the time to jump aboard the Diamond Grinder train if you missed it the first time around.

Expectations is out now via Perpetual Doom and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Duster – The Weed Supreme

Hot on the heels of the 25th Anniversary Edition of Stratosphere, slowcore royalty Duster have unveiled a collection of previously unreleased material, Remote Echoes, via The Numero Group. Or kind of unreleased, with some of the material having previously appeared on demo tapes Christmas Dust and On The Dodge. Single ‘The Weed Supreme’ gives an indication of what to expect, bathed in fuzz and possessing the trademark hushed vocals, proving so laidback so as to be almost horizontal.

Remote Echoes is out now via The Numero Group.

Family Man – FATHER JOHN

‘FATHER JOHN’, the latest single from Family Man, is an expose, an exorcism and an apology. Written about his experiences within LA’s private Catholic school system, lead Conner Root takes aim at both the callous dogma of conservative Christianity and the systems of privilege and white supremacy which underpins it. Family Man have made a name with their raw sound, but the intensely personal nature of this song breaks new ground. Years of toxicity and repression expelled with crushing force, castigating those who created such a reality, and making amends to the person inside Root who was waiting to live their life as it was meant to be.

‘FATHER JOHN’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Fortunato Durutti Marinetti – Clerk Of Oblivion

We previewed Eight Waves In Search Of An Ocean, the forthcoming album by Turin-born, Toronto-based Fortunato Durutti Marinetti on Quindi Records and Soft Abuse, back in September with single ‘Lightning On A Sunny Day‘. “An epic track that manages to weave real drama into its lazy sprawl,” as we put it, “evoking the titular image in its dreamlike blend of space and intensity.” The “poetic jazz rock” artist has now unveiled new track ‘Clerk Of Oblivion’, a song which turns its woozy electronic style towards the monolith of labour, sounding at once seething and stupefied, as though slowly whittled down by the weight of work. It uses the last few ounces of energy to try to communicate just how pointless and cruel the concept can be. “My only objective going into this song was to exorcize the spirit of Robert Wyatt’s The Age of Self, a major source of inspiration,” Marinetti explains. “But as usually happens, something else entirely formed.”

Half Stack – Cruisin USA

“The dusty cowboy aesthetic remains, but there’s more to Half Stack than that. Now they’re allowing their true spirit to shine through.” That’s how we described Sitting Pretty, the new album from the Oakland band on Forged Artifacts and Royal Oakie Records, in a preview earlier this summer. With this new freedom comes influences ranging from psych rock and power pop to honky tonk, and latest single ‘Cruisin USA’ taps into a little bit of everything to create a sound at once reflective and full of swagger. The dual vocals add a real chemistry too, and the result possesses an affirming spirit no matter how uncertain the lyrics might prove.

Laura Zarougian – Back To Piran

We’ve written about several singles from Nayri, the debut album from New York-based artist Laura Zarougian, recently, full of praise of her “one part Armenian cowgirl and one part indie rock” aesthetic. Now the album is out in the world, and we couldn’t help but feature one last song. A timeless slice of country, ‘Back To Piran’ is the record’s midpoint and an encapsulation of everything that’s good about it. A song full of longing and fragile strength, a commitment to remain connected to one’s heritage despite geographical distance. It’s a feeling far more genuinely American than any Hollywood cowboy. A ballad for diaspora everywhere.

Layperson – I Want To

The recording project of Portland, OR-based songwriter Julian Morris (Little Star, Post Moves), Layperson uses a welcoming folk rock sound to explore the strange contradictions of life. Next month’s new album Massive Leaning, a joint release by Lung Records and Bud Tapes, emerged in the aftermath of a break-up, though Morris consciously subverts the traditions of such records to offer a more nuanced picture. One where the vertiginous sense of loss and loneliness is in some way counterbalanced by a persistent hope. Take latest single ‘I Want To’, where Morris consciously refuses the temptation to return to familiar ground and instead opens his mind towards something different, and the buoyant sound comes to suggest a nascent spiritual awakening.

Baby, I want to
I want that feeling
The feeling that drives all the reasons
Baby I want to

Zoya Zafar – Tunnel Vision

Since the release of a self-titled EP back in 2013, Zoya Zafar has developed a delicate and often searching brand of folk music, probing into the uncertainties of relationships with equal parts vulnerability and strength. Produced by Gia Margaret, 2018 single ‘Sweet Talk’ saw Zafar’s sound evolve in an increasingly dreamy direction, something which carried through into this year’s ‘Wordz’. Her debut full-length album Some Songs is coming soon, and the Lahore-born, Orlando-based songwriter has unveiled latest single, ‘Tunnel Vision’ to further establish this sound. “True love / did it happen to be real love?” go the opening lines, “or just something to get through the night? / We don’t believe in paradise.” This confessional style is delivered on a pillowy arrangement, as though fragility and conviction are one and the same.

Tunnel Vision
I only see you
If I knew why,
It’d be the last thing that I’d do

The post Weekly Listening: October 2023 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Sitting Pretty, the new Half Stack album set for release this autumn, feels like an embrace of these wider influences. A joint release by Forged Artifacts and Royal Oakie Records, with a physical UK/EU release a month later with Cargo Collective, the record loosens its grip on the country aesthetic and in doing so allows all sorts of stylistic directions to show themselves. Psych rock, power pop, even a dose of honky tonk, each song opens up a new avenue to explore. But this unpredictability feels less like a band experimenting with possibilities as one finally able to embrace their fuller selves. The dusty cowboy aesthetic remains, but there’s more to Half Stack than that. Now they’re allowing their true spirit to shine through. 

Latest single ‘Burnt’ feels like a great entry point into this new stage of Half Stack. A song that blurs the line between slacker attitude and warm reflection, facing up to the twin threats of spreading yourself too thinly and the perpetual slipping away of time. “This track is about indecision and burnout and how I kind of do these things to myself,” Kegler explains. “I finished writing the words during a time of isolation while recovering from an injury that left me immobile for a while. I think I was examining my future and friendships and questioning some of that stuff.” But true to the Half Stack spirit, such contemplations are leavened with a wry humour too, the lightly self-deprecating tone buoying the track against any sense of anhedonia or self-pity. 

I’ve got a life to live but it makes no sense
I’m just burning the candle at both ends
I’ve got a life to live but its only for my friends
I’ll keep burning the candle at both ends

Sitting Pretty is out on the 6th October via Forged Artifacts and Royal Oakie Records and you can pre-order it now from the Half Stack Bandcamp page.

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