Michael Fox has been working in music in various guises over the past decade, and though Take Care, Stay Warm might be the first release under the Big Bluestem moniker, its assured quality carries all of this experience with it. Take the title track, a stripped-back folk song built around nothing but Fox’s vocals and careful acoustic guitar. Something which feels like the product of a byegone age, folk in its traditional sense, where a person sits down and records the feelings and stories of a life without ostentation. The result is earnest, tender, hushed though not without a certain intensity of feeling. A mood which seems to gather energy from the arrangement’s negative space. As though emotions voiced to the stillness of an empty room carry their own peculiar weight.

So I won’t pull you off the floor, brush the dust off of your coat
get back what’s been missing, or find the perfect quote
that could sum up all the feelings that are lodged inside our throats
but hey: Take Care, Stay Warm

Blue Bayou – New Wind, New Rain

Blue Bayou, who describe themselves as “a new wave, chamber pop band with horns and strings,” have just released their new EP, The Carousel, a five-song release which sees the Oxford-born, London-based project bring the energy of their live sound to tape. Think of a centre of a Venn diagram between the avant-folk of Black Country, New Road, the country rock twang of Brown Horse and the emotional clarity of Big Thief. Single ‘New Wind, New Rain’ is the perfect place to start. A song which feels far larger than its relatively convention three-and-a-half-minute runtime, heralded by mournful horns and driven forward by a bright and peppy percussion, all while the vocals swell together in heart and curiosity.

Charlie Vaughan – Don’t Wanna Drive

Fresh off touring with the likes of The Backseat Lovers and Hamilton Leithauser in 2025, London’s Charlie Vaughan is back with brand new single ‘Don’t Wanna Drive’ to further cement his place among the city’s most eclectic songwriters. The embodiment of his style, the track melds undeniable richness with the magic of happenstance, showing that careful craft and happy accident can exist side by side. “I wanted to write something dreamy and simple—no crazy structures” Vaughan explains of the track. “When we started to play the song on the road it changed a lot, we started playing it fast and with really driving drums. The bit at the end came from a beautiful fluke at a rehearsal and me and the band knew this was the perfect end.” Watch the video directed by La De La Studios below:

‘Don’t Wanna Drive is out now and available from the usual places.

The Dead Century – Hey Chicago

“Minneapolis has a rich heritage in energetic indie rock, so its great to see bands like The Dead Century carrying the flame onwards,” we wrote back in March, the band’s single ‘Been Better wearing its influences proudly, “taking the raucousness of The Replacements and some of The Hold Steady‘s buoyant positivity and applying them to the less than positive present.” Now the band have shared next single ‘Hey Chicago’ and the result is no less momentous or affirming. The track picks its way through the difficult terrain between staying put and moving on, but allows a sheer sense of energy to burn away any hesitation. The song “explores the hope and uncertainty that come from the end of a relationship,” say the band, “the delicate work of discerning what to carry with you and what to leave behind.”

Deer Tick – Everything Born

Folk rock stalwarts Deer Tick are returning with brand new full-length Coin-O-Matic this summer, an album which promises to delve into their homestate of Rhode Island and all of its peculiar histories (not least the collison betweenthe  ordinary working class American Dream and its shadow twin within the world of the mafia and organised crime). With the album set for release in June via ATO Records, the band have shared new single ‘Everything Born’ to give a flavour of this style, pitching the audience straight into the milieu of Providence and the personal dramas therein. “‘Everything Born’ was written quickly about the tenuousness of life and the precious time we have to spend with the people that come into our lives,” explains vocalist and guitarist Ian O’Neil “It’s about family, friends, neighbors, strangers and how these thoughts burrow a little deeper the older we get. I was thinking about my son and the people of Providence, RI while writing it.” Watch the video below, recorded at the Big Nice Studio and directed by Bradford Krieger and Rich Ferri:

Coin-O-Matic will be released on the 5th June via ATO and you can pre-order it now.

Hockitay – buttons

Guatemalan-born, Montreal-based artist Hockitay made a splash earlier in the year with single ‘over/over’, a song “where loneliness and restlessness overlap,” as we wrote. “That curiously digital phenomenon where even an empty room can now be overwhelming.” Follow-up single ‘buttons’ continues this exploration of the technological encroachment on our lives, asking how we might hope to maintain a sense of authentic self in a world automated by things like AI. The video, directed by Buvard and David S. Blouin, employs a full-spectrum modified camera (i.e. one which captures UV, visible and IR light simultaneously) to add a further haunting atmosphere to the track, portraying the digital experience in all of its eerie surreality.

‘buttons’ is out now via Future Gods and available from Bandcamp.

Jordan Whitlock & Memory Spells – You Tell Me / A Flower Blooming For No One

“This project began as an exchange of demos and became a deeply personal dialogue,” explained Jordan Whitlock of the collaboration with Matt Bauer’s Memory Spells, with the duo having now released their debut full-length This Is What It Feels Like. “Remarkably, Bauer and Whitlock only met in person when the record was already half completed, though far from hampering the intimacy and emotional connection of the music, this distance ultimately helped deepen it,” we wrote in a preview of the record, “the pair dialling into the themes of isolation, bonding and longing.” What the duo call “a quiet meditation on beauty without witness,” final single ‘A Flower Blooming For No One’ heralds the release of the album, offering a glimpse at the wonder which exists every day in the secrecy of isolation.

A hummingbird
Its ruby throat
Catching the light
And letting it go
A shadow cast
A cold white sun
A flower blooming for no one

King Ropes – Baby Bird

“If Dave Hollier and co. are taking on The Spirit of The West, you’d best expect a collection of songs attuned to the contradictions of the experience on the ground, where well-worn myths and old stereotypes rub up against everyday hardships and the outright oddness of twenty-first century living.” So we wrote of King Ropes‘ most recent album Idaho back in 2024, praising how the Bozeman, Montana outfit managed to evoke the landscape of the American West in all of its beauty and harshness. Now King Ropes are back with brand new single ‘Baby Bird’, and while the track might appear altogether more tender on the surface, there’s still room for a brooding dimension to the sound. A reimagining of a classic sixties/seventies love song that swaps out some of the honeyed glow of the period for a stranger, ambiguous contemporary folk style.

It may sound absurd
I’m a man she’s a bird
These things take time to understand

‘Baby Bird’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Luke Francis – Anywhere

Though recorded in LA this past winter with Derek Ted, Luke Francis‘s new single ‘Anywhere’ has roots in a period a year prior, with the Seattle-based songwriter noting a variety of key locations and experiences. “The Bamboo Village parking lot on a snowy Seattle night,” he lists, “the Historic Grand Canyon Hotel, and the front steps of my childhood home in California while a plumber rescued me from what had occurred inside the house.” As you might expect from such a specific set of influences, the resulting track is highly personal, Francis taking the moods and imagery of his own memories and applying a coat of classic country wistfulness to create a modern love song that nevertheless harks back to an old romantic style. “Honey ride with me tonight
I’ve got a bottle of wine and the moonlight on my mind,” as he sings in the opening lines. “We could left and right, through the night
don’t you wanna climb in and let the road unwind?”

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

Paycheque – Generic Actress

Consisting of Alison Goldfarb and Jackson MacIntosh (TOPS, Drugdealer), Paycheque represent something of a collision between the retro and the contemporary. Though practising a decidedly eighties-flavoured style of indie pop, the duo aim for more than pure nostalgia, repurposing the sound to conjure the modern Los Angeles in all of its glitz, violence and precarity. Their self-titled debut full-length, coming this summer via Mansions and Millions, draws upon the sounds of the Reagan-Thatcher era to explore the present calamities seeded in that period, be they human-induced natural disasters, roving gangs of militarised immigration officers or the general superficiality of the great quest for stardom. Opener ‘Generic Actress’ offers a first glimpse. “In LA, when you go out, you end up spending a lot of time standing outside of whatever event or party you’ve decided to attend,” the band explain of the single. “You’re on the sidewalk, you’re in a strip mall parking lot, you’re on a patio. You smoke, you bump into friends, and you eventually realize you missed half the set you came to see, you never actually made it inside the gallery, the party is winding down. This song is an ode to never quite making it inside.”

Watch the video by Paycheque with additional footage shot by Jessica Dean Harrison below:

Paycheque will be released on the 12th June via Mansions and Millions and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Snake Orange Cake – Lucid

Åland-born, Berlin-based artist Julia Carlsson has released a number of singles under the moniker Snake Orange Cake in recent times, most recently ‘Vision’ back in January. A self-described “hypnotic ritual in sound” which “functions something like an incantation or mantra,” we wrote in a preview, “the vocals repeating a series of mystical images as though hoping to conjure some mystical effect. The pulsing beat only furthers the mesmeric vibe, leading the listener into a space somehow adjacent from every day reality.” Now Carlsson has unveiled Lucid, the project’s debut EP which collects these songs alongside the new title track, and the fresh offering just so happens to serve as the ideal calling card for the project. With an ambiguous tone that embraces playfulness, sensuality and a certain mystical charm, ‘Lucid’ capture the balance between intimacy and openness that marks the Snake Orange Cake sound, as well as the sense of otherworldly potential which emerges from its dreamlike flow.

Vesuvian – Fortunate Death

Vesuvian is a Philly-based outfit consisting of Garret Bollin (guitar, vocals), Joey DeGrado (vocals, guitar), Bill Magerr (bass) and Gavin Caffrey Perez-Canto (drums and percussion). Back in 2023 they released More Treble, a punk rock record concerned with everything from horror movies and actresses to the ancient Mediterranean, and now they’re back with a brand new self-titled album which looks push the sound even further. Take latest single ‘Fortunate Death’, which is certainly not your usual scrappy punk number, drawing upon the work of Julio Cortázar and accounts of Mesoamerican history to create something cathartic and boisterous. “Years ago, I read that Aztec sacrifices were honored to die that way,” De Grado explains. “Does this have historic validity? Who knows! But the idea stayed with me, waiting to come out in a song. I took this idea of being overjoyed at death and combined it with some of the images from ‘The Night, Face Up’.”

Waxahatchee – Where’s Your Love Now? (This Is Lorelei cover)

This Is Lorelei is about to release the super deluxe edition of their celebrated 2024 album Box for Buddy, Box for Star via Double Double Whammy, with the ten original album tracks joined by ten covers from an impressive range of artists. Momma, SASAMI, Snail Mail, Tim Heidecker and MJ Lenderman are just some of the acts offering versions of the songs, and Waxahatchee‘s take on ‘Where’s Your Love Now?’ is the latest to be revealed. “I think Nate is one of the best songwriters of this moment, making music that feels current and timeless and also somehow ahead of a curve,” Katie Crutchfield told Stereogum. “When I heard ‘Where’s Your Love Now?’ I thought it was one of the best songs I’ve ever heard.”

Box for Buddy, Box for Star (Super Deluxe) is out on the 17th April via Double Double Whammy and you can pre-order it now.

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To bring this to life, King Ropes offer a sound to match the landscape. One where beauty and harshness sit side by side, and imperfections are just part of the rustic charm. Whether that be the bright and buoyant opener ‘Two Shoes’ or the brooding ‘Radio Jane’ which flickers with an edge of what might be sultry romance or latent violence. ‘Way Too High’ follows with a far smoother, languid flow, though beneath the lazy haze lies a simmering unease. As though, true to the title, the narrator is finding themselves overtaken by a sense of deepening unreality, peculiarities bleeding into the everyday, the sense nothing is quite what it seems.

It is this balance between the ordinary and the extraordinary that marks Idaho, just as it has the other records in the King Ropes oeuvre, and represents that elusive Spirit of The West. The upending combination of familiarity and alienation that comes with living in the middle of nowhere, where isolation is both a confine and a wide-open space. Sun-baked, unrefined, a world within a world. Something as evident in the laconic rhythm of songs like ‘Broken Cup’ and ‘Ride In Your Car’ as it is spacious wonder of ‘International Shortwave’ or the sleek mischievousness of ‘Succulent Thief’, not to mention ‘Live Like an Animal’ with its mean swagger and bite. A song in which sardonic humour meets something primal to the point where you are never quite sure what its next move might be.

Idaho is out now via Big and Just Little and available from the usual places.

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The title of the latest King Ropes record therefore feels fitting. Super Natural. A manifestation or event “attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature,” is how the dictionary defines supernatural, but the title isn’t quite that. Perhaps it instead refers to the opposite. Something perfectly in line with scientific understanding and the laws of nature. Something especially natural.

With equal parts realism and oddness, the album does not fall on one side or the other, instead embracing both simultaneously. Be it the unexplained symptoms of ‘Breathing’ or ideas of reincarnation on ‘My Brother’s a Bear Now’, or the very human sense of loss and worry which ghosts across both. The mood is typified by single ‘Greedy‘, what we described as “a deadpan stream of consciousness which captures the vibe of an album that is a ramshackle ode to both the grace and difficulty of our strange world.” A slacker rock track about a trip to Coney Island, but also so much more than that. As though the garish lights of the tilt a whirl and the made-up faces of mermaids on parade are not some departure from reality but rather its essence distilled. “Kinda trippy,” as the lyrics go. “Kinda dreamy.”

We took the opportunity to speak with the band to dig a little deeper into the ideas and stories behind the record:

Hi Dave and everyone at King Ropes, thanks for speaking with us and congratulations on the release of Super Natural. How’s it feel to put another record into the world?

Hi, great speaking with you too! And thanks, we always appreciate what you do at Various Small Flames. It always feels good releasing a record, but this one feels (laughing) extra special to us somehow. We recorded this in our spot in Bozeman (Montana) in a way that somehow felt more relaxed, and at the same time more focussed and direct than anything we’ve done before. Ben (Roth) brought his gear out from Seattle and we set up in our spot for about 8 or 10 days, and dove in without any real outside distractions. I had written the songs, and worked them out with Jeff (Jensen) pretty well, but we’d never played them before. We’d work on a song for a while until it felt like something was gelling, then Jeff and I would go get coffees while Ben set up mic’s, and we’d hit record. It kept feeling like we were capturing lightening in a bottle. Pretty great feeling!

There’s a directness to many of the songs which feels different to your previous work, with tracks like ‘Breathing’ facing things in a pretty unflinching manner. Was this something you set out to achieve with the new record, or did the songs just happen to emerge this way?

I think you’re right. And yeah, it was something we were all trying to do. I wrote these songs as the lockdown stuff was really settling in, and we were all, the whole world, realizing it was going to go on and on, who knew how long. Somehow that helped me approach the songwriting in a more focussed way, I guess. Like with the recording, it felt both more focussed and more relaxed. I can’t really explain why. Maybe something to do with some of the distractions of normal life being put on the back burner? The more I got into that mode the more I was conscious of what was happening, and I kept leaning into it. ‘Breathing’ for sure is a good example. And ‘Blind Eye’. Maybe even more, ’Drunk Donny’ and ‘Sure’ which both have hardly any lyrics at all. They just say the thing, and I leave it at that. I’d never written so sparely before, and it felt like a bit of a revelation.

I’m also interested in the wry humour of your work, and how this relates to the painful and personal aspects of the songs. Does the playful side of your style let you push deeper than you perhaps otherwise might?

For sure! I mean life can be brutal and painful and unrelenting, but it’s also bizarre and hilarious, right? I guess in the broadest sense I’m trying to address, to express, some of the ways that we all have very particular experiences that relate to the human experience broadly, universally, you know? It’s what bonds us all. It wouldn’t feel honest to just give a voice to one side or the other, tragedy or comedy. They really are inseparable.

That said, there’s a weird, inscrutable side to the music too. Be it on ‘Real Live Tiger’ or the appropriately titled closer ‘Mystery’. Not to ask a magician to reveal his tricks, but do you have a good handle on what these more cryptic elements refer too? Or are you just working with what feels interesting or right, a conduit for something none of us can quite pin down?

(Laughing) It’s true, there’s some stuff in these that might leave you thinking “what this f*** is this about, anyway?” There’s always a touchstone to real experiences for me, but I like the way leaving things a bit obscure can give the listener a chance to fill in the blanks in a way that might make it feel more directly relevant to their own life, right? I was a painter before I dove so deep into making music, and I was always interested in the line between figurative art and abstract art. What makes some paint on a canvas look like a smear of paint, and a human face at the same time? Or not! I guess I’m doing something like that with songwriting.

Anyway, yes, almost all these cryptic obscure things I sing about come from some specific thing in my life, or that I’ve seen up close. I won’t pull back the curtain, so to speak, and get into a ton of detail here. But we could sit down and have a beer sometime and I’ll tell some stories.

It’s fair to say the record is a melting pot of sounds. There’s the Americana influence, there’s psych and stoner sensibilities, there are synths, noise-based tracks, all sort of things bouncing around. Could you talk a little about how this range evolved?

Sure! I think I’m speaking for all of us when I say we’re fans of music first. And we love all kinds of music. (Which is different from saying we like everything!). But we’ve all been influenced by, and moved by and fallen in love with, a lot of music. So it feels limiting, and honestly, boring, to try to fit ourselves into one genre or another. The challenge is to allow all these different influences to come into play without having it sound like total chaos, or worse, just random, like it’s some kind of party trick. So we’re always trying to stay between the lines of being boring and predictable on one side, and just random chaotic nonsense on the other. I guess that’s another way of saying we’re always trying to figure out how to make songs that on the surface can sound wildly diverse, but feel viscerally related to each other, and identifiable as King Ropes songs. Makes for a fun little puzzle to solve sometimes.

Could we talk about influences? I think most writers feel they’re working in some kind of lineage, and not always that which seems most apparent from the outside. Which artists, songwriters or otherwise, would you align your work with?

Hm. There are so many songwriters I admire, and who I try to learn something from where I can. I’ll just throw some out and feel bad tomorrow about some of the one’s I should have mentioned. Willie Nelson is way up there. Tom Petty. Lucinda Williams. Frank Black from Pixies. I mean, Kurt Cobain. Bowie. Sharon Van Etten, Elton John, (with Bernie Taupin of course, but damn some of those songs are great), Phoebe Bridgers. Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish. Beck. Al Green. Elliott Smith. Ok. I’ll stop now….

What does the future hold for King Ropes?

Ha! More of the same, without being the same! The real goal is to figure out how to keep doing exactly what we’re doing. Writing songs, recording, and playing music that feels fresh and new to us, and hopefully resonates with the people who hear it. In order to do that we’re working at building a bit broader audience, and a little more exposure in the “industry”, or whatever. But the reason for us to do that is to be able to keep doing what we’re already doing.

And touring! We’re so happy to be back at it. We’ve been out a couple times this year and have a fair amount of shows lined up for the rest of the year. Keep your ears open. Come see us if we make it to your town!

Super Natural is out now via Big and Just Little and available from the King Ropes Bandcamp page.

Portrait photo by Courtney Fitzpatrick

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“Strange DIY songs for strange DIY times,” is how we’ve described the work of California‘s Derek Ted in the past, though 2021’s KEEP TRYING hinted at a warmer, sentimental side. Latest single ‘someday soon’ develops this aspect of Ted’s work, finding a ray of light in otherwise dark circumstances and working to persevere if only for the sight of it. “I wanted to capture that pure magic you feel when you’re first crushing on someone special,” Ted explains. “Like a springtime daydream played out in your head.”

gotten used to having my heart wasted
but then you came around
could it be true?
there’s beauty on the horizon
i’d wait around all just if just for you

For Breakfast – Orfordness Lighthouse

Ahead of their forthcoming EP Trapped in the Big Room on Glasshouse Records, London-based art rock outfit For Breakfast have unveiled brand new single, ‘Orfordness Lighthouse’. The single is as detailed and inventive as you might expect from a seven-piece band, each member bringing their own musical sensibilities to achieve a sound incorporating everything from dream pop and noise rock to trip hop and psychedelica. The brass and flutes of ‘Orfordness Lighthouse’ weave a nuanced, playful sound, though this is anchored by a post-rock depth which rises as the song progresses and thunders into the cathartic conclusion.

Horseface – Sanakirjan Takana

Based in Umeå, Sweden, Horseface work at the intersection of dream pop and post-punk to create their immersive songs. Next month sees the release of their latest album Sanakirjan Takana on Sing a Song Fighter and they have shared the title track by way of an introduction. With rhythmic percussion and synths/mellotron from David Lundberg (of Gösta Berlings Saga), the song combines emotive atmospherics with off-kilter charm. The title, which translates as “behind the dictionary,” alludes to a short story by the mother of the lead vocalist which was sadly only found after her untimely passing, and there’s a sense of cryptic fondness running through the sound.

King Ropes – Greedy

Bozeman, Montana outfit King Ropes won our attention back in 2021 with the release of Way Out West, an album which took inspiration from the rural landscape and mindset as well as a healthy slice of weirdness. Songs marked “by odd wisdom and surreal images, all cloaked in a psych-inflected air that only accentuates the strangeness,” as we put it. With trauma, reincarnation and inexplicable ailments, this balance between natural beauty and eeriness is again a feature of new LP Super Natural, out next month on Big and Just Little, as shown by latest single ‘Greedy’. A deadpan stream of consciousness which captures the vibe of an album that is a ramshackle ode to both the grace and difficulty of our strange world.

Super Natural is out on the 26th May and you can order your copy from the King Ropes Bandcamp page.

Mal Not Bad – Oven

The recording project of Los Angeles-based visual artist and musician Mallory Hauser, Mal Not Bad makes a lush brand of indie folk which blurs the line between mundane reality and ethereal dreams. Ahead of new EP Continuous Short Feature Film and a EU/UK tour with Illuminati Hotties, Mal has released the single ‘Oven’. A slow, foggy track which captures this spirit perfectly. “Smells like something’s burning,” Hauser sings, the delivery more sluggish than panicked as dissonant tones scramble the once-pillowy sound, like a nightmare where the terrible is happening but you can hardly move.

Continuous Short Feature Film is due to be released later this year.

Sinead O’Brien – There Are Good Times Coming

Ahead of debut album Time Bend and Break The Bower, out via Chess Club Records this summer, Ireland’s Sinead O’Brien has unveiled latest single, ‘There Are Good Times Coming’. The song captures the idiosyncratic aesthetic O’Brien has developed, one reliant on words and images as much as sound, and able to be at once twitchy and fluid, alluring and menacing, forthright and mysterious. “Throw a coin in the fountain,” O’Brien sings. “A curse in your name / A praise in vein of kindness / There are good times coming / For love or for money there are good times coming.” Check out the video directed by Chloé le Drezen below:

Time Bend and Break The Bower is out via Chess Club Records on the 10th June and you can pre-order it now.

Yves Jarvis – At the Whims

We’ve followed the work on Montreal‘s Yves Jarvis since his days recording under the moniker Un Blonde, always appreciating how Jarvis maintains such a sense of detail and invention in his sound. Ahead of new album The Zug on ANTI-, Yves Jarvis is back with brand new single ‘At the Whims’. Described as depicting “the arc of civilization,” the track uses psych pop as the thread to weave a tapestry of human history, starting with creation and extending out into a time yet to be realised. A future marked by collapsing empires, as foretold in all empires past.

The Zug is out on the 13th May via ANTI- and you can pre-order it from the Yves Jarvis Bandcamp page.

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If Go Back was in some way an album about returning from the city, then new album Way Out West is what comes after. To be released this June, the record takes direct inspiration from the rural landscape and mindset. A Montana record, made at home, about home. “I’m trying to carve out a sound for us that reflects our Montana roots,” he explains. “I’m trying to evoke the open space. Rural, open— just where we’re from.”

The mood is caught by lead single, ‘Magical Floating Eye’, an unsettled, creeping track that blurs the banal and the mystical. There’s something Lynchian in both the lyricism and delivery, the easy-going rhythm interrupted intermittently by odd wisdom and surreal images, all cloaked in a psych-inflected air that only accentuates the strangeness. But beneath it all, somewhere between the peculiar demands and esoteric vibes, something else stirs. Something that looks surprisingly like hope.

Say something smart, say something funny
walk backwards, speak in tongues
A magical floating eye on a blue plate hanging on a wall in a motel in Deer Lodge, Montana
might make you free

Way Out West is out on the 11th June and you can pre-order it now from the King Ropes Bandcamp page, including on CD and LP.

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The influence of musical history is even more overt in the forthcoming King Ropes record, Go Back Where They Came From. Recorded between Brooklyn and Tacoma across three sessions squeezed into breaks on tour, the album compromises entirely of covers, the band offering reworkings and interpretations of classic songs from the likes of Elton John, Steve Earle, Al Green and Talking Heads.

The goal of the record is far more than emulation. “Most of what I know about songwriting I’ve learned by covering other people’s songs,” Hollier explains. “But I’ve never been interested in copying the original version of a song. The covers I love to hear are when someone takes a great song, and makes it into something new.” A successful cover for King Ropes is not that which is closest to the original, rather a re-imagining that does justice to the creative and emotional power that the first artist worked with.

The process was therefore one of de- and reconstruction. “On this album, we’ve tried to strip the songs down to the bare bones, and then build them back up again and take them pretty far from their original context,” Hollier continues. “I’ve been thinking about cover songs for a long time, and I thought it would be fun to try a covers album with a bunch of songs from all over the map, and take those songs in a bunch of directions.”

Their version of ‘Girls Like Us’ by Mike Ferrio’s Tandy is the perfect example. Taking the slow burn country spirit of the original and pushing it into a newly vivid territory, King Ropes offer a brighter song, the added flourish of trombone from Lucy Hollier lending a real richness. With it’s quiet power, Ferrio’s original occupied a space akin to the too-dark afternoon of a deep winter sunset, and while the King Ropes version is no less wistful, there’s a longevity to the light in the track—a summer’s dusk where the sun’s honeyed drop does not come with the same sense of loss.

Check out the video by Kathy Kasic of Metamorph Films below:

Go Back Where They Came From is out on the 22nd May and you can find more on the King Ropes website.

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