“There’s a new song we can write to sing ourselves…”
Single Lash offers up incisive, shimmering riffs wrapped in a sardonic, biting wit. Hailing from Austin, this art-rock ensemble fuses guitars with a cool, calculated intellect, evoking the spirit of bands such as The Chameleons, Japan, The Teardrop Explodes, Belle and Sebastian, and Echo and the Bunnymen. What initially began as an art school experiment by singer-songwriter Nicolas Nadeau has blossomed into a formidable quartet renowned for their emotionally charged performances that strike with the force of cold steel.
Single Lash confidently strides into staccato lockstep, then fearlessly plunges into the raw earnestness and cautious hopefulness in their new single, New Song. Musically, it captures the faded grandeur of Berlin-era Bowie, particularly in Nadeau’s brooding baritone and the jangly shimmer reminiscent of 80s Creation Records. The bridge even playfully incorporates a touch of Phil Spector’s signature beat, echoing The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” with a flicker of nostalgia.
The lyrics chart a course through a sea of sorrow, each stroke a scar, each wave a wall of heartache. Yet, beneath the bruises, there’s a glimmer of grit—a yearning to trade old scars for new beginnings. The refrain, “this is the one that breaks me,” strikes like a hard truth, signaling a connection that cuts deeper than the rest. New Song is a bold gamble to break free from the chokehold of old, self-destructive cycles and embrace something brighter, bolder—a chance at a life worth living.
“It gets comfortable living in that same old darkness,” Nadeau muses. “Way too comfortable even as it’s painful. After a while the faintest flicker of light becomes almost blinding and your instinct just becomes to burrow deeper. This is about resisting that instinct. Or trying to, anyway.”
“New Song in particular really resonated in that space,” Nadeau recalls. “Sharing that moment with everyone in the pews really did feel spiritual, especially for a song that I wrote in the depths of lockdown isolation.”
You can practically smell the incense burning through the glowing cinematic haze of Penrose’s video. Watch below:
Listen to New Song below and order the album Ladida here.
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