Widowspeak
“If You Change”
Captured Tracks
I’m a sucker for a sweet sentiment wrapped up in a flannel-toned, 90’s alternative rock song that sounds like it could be the intro music for a family-friendly teen drama from 1995.
If that sounds hyper-specific, know that it’s a subset of music that’s very popular right now, thanks to Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby, Kurt Vile , Courtney Barnett and others. It’s rooted in bands chasing that sound of Big Star and Lemonheads; of big guitars with a bit of fuzz and layers of jangle on top. It’s full but non-threatening.
It’s music for soft, emotional lumberjacks. Or if you want to be boring about it, a contemporary take on college radio from 30 years ago.
No one is doing it better in my book than Widowspeak, the husband-and-wife duo of Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas. They’re now based in Brooklyn but originally from Washington. (You can hear that geography in their music.) They’re getting ready to release their seventh album “Roses” on Captured Tracks on June 5.
Their excellent new single “If You Change” is everything I just described and more; a lovely little piece of dream pop with just a splash of alt-country. And the sentiment! Listen to these lyrics:
If you change, don't change too much
'Cause I really loved this one
It goes deeper than what I first suspected -- a sweet little love song about liking someone as they are, even as they grow old together. According to vocalist-songwriter Molly Hamilton, it’s more than that, writing that she “thought about the fear of change, and when things (situations, objects) feel stuck in time because of a fear of ruining them. You always hear “mint condition” as though it is as an asset, but it also means that thing hasn’t been used, lived with, loved. It never gets to fulfill its destiny.”
Even without that lyrical depth, the song is an absolute banger that’s been stuck in my head for days.
