The songwriting duo of Andrea Rogers and Colby Wright have been writing and performing as Night Driving in Small Towns since 2005. In that time, the group have compiled an enviable catalog of tracks full of wistful melodies and sharp observations. Whether soft and dreamy or rough and rollicking, their songs cut straight to the chase, seeking out the raw, exposed parts of humanity. The pair’s latest single—their second in as many weeks—settles comfortably into that incisive backdrop, although not without its own unique, spellbinding ambience. For Rogers and Wright, the track has emerged as a new personal favorite, albeit for reasons they can’t quite explain.

“I don’t really know why,” Rogers acknowledges. “I think it lends itself to a nostalgic feeling, like something you’d hear in an ’80s movie. From the minute we got the parts together, it just felt kind of magical, like something that formed itself, instead of us forming it.”

That feeling of serendipity can be felt in the song’s breezy yet melancholic jangle. “Animal” coasts along a warm and deft groove, fleshing out its spare arrangement with hypnotic leads and a steady backbeat. It’s a rare song in which everything feel perfectly in place, each lulling chord leading inexorably into the next like some serene Southern version of Fleetwood Mac. Over the course of its intoxicating 3:44, nary a sound goes wasted, a result, perhaps, of the duo’s more patient and deliberate songwriting.

“One common thread tying the new songs together was a more intentional approach,” says Wright. “Us taking stock of everything we’d done in the past and assessing the strengths of that older material. We wanted the new songs to grow from those places of strength, but in new and different ways.”

From a lyrical standpoint, “Animal” addresses issues of discomfort and how we process and respond to those feelings. It’s a theme that runs throughout the group’s latest work, tying everything together in a ragged knot of hope, pain, and deep yearning. “You walked yourself into my room / And you saw nothing there of worth,” Rogers sings at the song’s outset, establishing the protagonist as an object of scorn and disdain. Rather than recoiling in anger or despair, however, she/he/they maintain a desperate desire to be seen and, in some way, appreciated. For Rogers, it’s this thorny tangle of emotions that gives the track much of its powerful resonance.

“There’s a sense of intense longing there, but it’s inseparable from those feelings of discomfort and the urgent need to be understood,” Rogers explains. “The central metaphor in ‘Animal’ is of the beloved being caged, groomed, and put on display for an audience that doesn’t understand it, much like an exotic animal at the circus. Beyond that, I think it calls attention to a culture that makes some of us think being treated in those ways is acceptable, or even ideal.”

Listen below.

“Animal” is the second of four new singles Night Driving in Small Towns are releasing in December and January. Look for the next cut, “Drag Me Under,” to drop on Dec. 29.

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