🎧 Approved: Widowspeak

NYC duo Widowspeak deal in a kind of effortless Americana alchemy, dream pop and power pop, a little Stones, a little Petty, open and languid ballads with the twang of a Lynchian roadhouse band. Depending on the angle, you might hear REM, Yo La Tengo, Cat Power, a little Neil Young in vocalist Molly Hamilton’s diner-shift references. 

The magic, though, is the interplay between her and bandmate Robert Earl Thomas: her languid, textured voice and his visceral guitar playing.

New single ‘No Driver’ is a lush, widescreen pop gem, unhurried and wide-open, until a blistering guitar lead arrives and reminds you there’s real heat underneath all that cool. It’s the kind of song that sounds like it’s always existed.

Hamilton describes it as being written from the perspective of loving someone on autopilot, supportive but waiting, recognising the strange magic of that in-between state while knowing it can’t last. 

But she’s also writing to her younger self: “I’m 1000% on the other side of my wilder years - I quit drinking almost seven years ago and now have a baby - but I definitely felt aimless for a long time. I care now, and caring about things and people and having a reason… is the whole point”. 

New album ‘Roses’ is due 5 Jun, and if ‘No Driver’ is anything to go by, it’s going to be something special.

🎧 Watch the video for ‘No Driver’ below