Last we heard from Widowspeak, they were covering Neil Young in the wake of their 2017 album Expect The Best. Today the earthy yet celestial Brooklyn band is back with “Breadwinner,” their first new song in three years. On Twitter, they explain that “it is a song about work. and there is a video, too, which we made at home.”
“Baby, you gotta quit that job ’cause your boss is a jerk,” Molly Hamilton sings. “Go on and take the time off, and I’ll do the work.” That’s how it starts. It ends with this lament about capitalism that, like many lyrics, just hits different in pandemic times: “Is this how you measure time? Vacations you can’t take/ Is this how you count the hours? The ones when you’re awake/ O, met a man who never worked/ O, you and I will always work.” It’s as spare and breathy and beautiful as anything they’ve released, and it’s matched with homemade footage that, of course, includes rising dough.
Watch below.
“Breadwinner” is out now on Captured Tracks.