Widowspeak’s new album “The Jacket” is out next month, and ahead of its release they’ve shared one final advance single, the title track. It’s a dreamy track, and the band say, “‘The Jacket’ is about things we choose, dress up in and adopt as symbols of who we are. Things that become objects loaded with meaning until we eventually lose or discard them, grow out of them. It’s a literal jacket in the song, and in the context of the storyline represents all the cliches (imagined and real) of being in a band, rock and roll, youth, projecting ‘cool’ (or thinking you do), and believing in the power of symbols and costume to help find and define your true self.
Eventually you move on from the moment, and the sorts of places and experiences and relationships tied to that time, when the jacket was your favourite thing in the world and felt like a part of you. It’s hard to let go. But you notice you aren’t that person anymore. “The jacket”, and everything it represented, was left behind somewhere along the way.”
“Written in the months before and after the release of their critically acclaimed 2020 album “Plum”, “The Jacket” feels like a full-circle moment for the duo of Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas. Thematically, it considers Plum’s broader questions about the values ascribed to one’s time and labour through the more refined lens of performance and music-making. Sonically, “The Jacket” finds the band at their usual and best: the album breathes deeply, balancing moments of open lushness with a straightforward, Velvets-y approach. Dynamics shift seamlessly between gentle, drifting ballads and twangy jams, built up from layered guitars, dusty percussion and ambling bass lines.
The Fat Angel Sings 