With the nights suddenly darker and the days shorter, I find myself once again fighting the urge to hibernate, and seeking solace for my seasonal misery in music tinged with gothier hues. Desperate Journalist seem to have realised this intuitively, in releasing their new single ‘Cedars’ now.
The press release describes them as ‘much-loved indiegoth dreamboats’, and singer Jo Bevan explains that ‘Cedars’ is about ‘the pervasive anxiety of the romantic that nothing will ever be enough’.
There’s nothing like a blend of longing and hopelessness to fill the heart with a bittersweet ache. And so it is that the guitars both surge and jangle over a rolling bass behind a wistful vocal melody that’s lush and evocative, soaring in all the right places: it’s pretty and sad at the same time. Or sad because it’s pretty. I’m a bit old to dance round the room while getting teary, but you get the idea. It’s a song that harks back to a vintage age of post-punk / indie, while at the same time demonstrating that a great song is a great song at any time.
