Downtempo indie songwriting will forever be reliant on melancholy. The latest single from MORE participates in this storied tradition while the band demonstrates a love for ’90s alternative, delicately stepping away from the kaleidoscopic psychedelia that defined their previous project Abby GoGo. It’s a surprising departure in style, and the new single’s forlorn lyrics about the past sucking life from the future are more grounded in reality than the hazy fever dreams of their previous work.
“Black Denim Bookends” is the second offering from the trio’s upcoming debut EP Immortal, an ambitious effort to analyze time and the role it plays in defining our individual existence. “Each song is centered around how we allow time to affect aspects of our lives,” guitarist and vocalist Jon Allinson explains. “The keywords here and how they relate are death (end of time), ennui (the moments in between events), existentialism (creating our own meaning in our lives), and evolve (move through time).”
The emotional weight of “Black Denim Bookends” never becomes overbearing, in part thanks to the sharpness with which the drums cut through the mix and drive it forward. The resulting track is both insistent and circuital, and the band avoids the more overbearing pitfalls of traditional shoegaze by injecting pop elements that lend a crisp, refreshing feel to the song. The hints of morose introspection are muted by either hope or delusion, and the listener’s state of mind is the deciding factor as to whether “Black Denim Bookends” is a cathartic release or a repetitive nightmare.
“The first half of the song deals with what happens when someone finds out who you really are and is disappointed that their perception was off,” says Allinson, “thus pushing you into self-appraisal and building walls to protect yourself and losing connection altogether. The chorus cries out for connection, for we only have a short amount of time to make them. Hence the lyric ‘we are halfway home’ (death). The second part of the song talks about reconnecting with someone and seeing how feelings can be brought back up (pulled from the shelf). The shelf of emotions, experiences, wounds, scars, and things we pick up over our lives (time). It’s the Black Denim Bookends that hold the darker ones in place.”
Listen below.
The release date for Immortal remains TBA.
MORE will perform on Sun., Mar. 15 at the EARL alongside Bambara and Vincas. Doors open at 8 p.m. Admission is $13 in advance or $15 DOS. 21+ to enter.
More Info
Bandcamp: moremoremore.bandcamp.com
Instagram: @more_theband