Last month, the Waeve released “City Lights,” their first material since last year’s eponymous debut. Today, the project of Blur’s Graham Coxon and the Pipettes’ Rose Elinor Dougall is announcing its sophomore LP, City Lights, and sharing the single “You Saw.”
“‘You Saw’ is a song about acknowledging how seemingly tiny decisions can have a seismic impact on the course of one’s life, how sometimes it feels like the way things turn out are predestined,” the band explained. “It’s about reconciling a past version with the new version of one’s self and being grateful for how things work out. It’s built around a rhythmic string line to reflect the sense of propulsive forward motion.”
The album is produced by James Ford, who also did their debut. “The first record was a way of escaping the constrictions of what was going on in the world,” Dougall said. “I think this one was a way of railing against the more domestic constraints that we had. That’s partly where some of the urgency of some of the songs come from.”
Coxon added, “This album is definitely more neurotic and more grumpy — and that comes from me! I’ve always liked to be pretty straightforward about feelings, whether they’re ugly or beautiful, and I’ve always approached sound in the same way. I don’t always think that sound needs to be comfortable to listen to. That dynamic of putting discomfort next to something that is really lovely is something that I’ve always been interested in.”
City Lights includes a track titled “Song For Eliza May,” which centers on the birth of Dougall’s daughter. About that, Dougall expounded:
I was really resistant for a while to even consider referencing it. But actually, when I realized that I could use that experience to explore bigger themes — watching what’s happening in the news, all these terrible atrocities and the world falling apart. And in tandem with that, thinking about how life evolves and how my own sense of self has developed. It became a really good vehicle for the song-writing process.
Hear “You Saw” below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “City Lights”
02 “You Saw”
03 “Moth To The Flame”
04 “I Belong To”
05 “Simple Days”
06 “Broken Boys”
07 “Song For Eliza May”
08 “Druantia”
09 “Girl Of The Endless Night”
10 “Sunrise”
City Lights is out 9/20 on Transgressive.
