Regal folk-rock trio Loma recently announced their second album Don’t Shy Away for release in late October, sharing the wonderful “Ocotillo” in the process. We’ve been waiting with baited breath to hear more since then, and today they’ve brought us the goods with a new track called “Half Silences”. The band’s Jonathan Meiburg says:
“‘Half Silences’ was the first song we recorded for Don’t Shy Away, and we kept tinkering with it after we soft-released an early version last year. When you start making a record, you don’t know which songs will make the cut—but this one always seemed to belong, and we wanted to give the final mix (and its DIY video) a proper debut. People have asked if the fireworks are CGI. They aren’t.”
On “Half Silences”, Loma produce the same kind of instrumental intelligence as we’ve heard before, building subtly from a tight rhythm to an expansive finale, but this time they do it while maintaining intimacy to match Emily Cross’ light voice. She swirls around imagery of intermingling breaths, ephemeral touches and the mesmerising movement of a magnetic presence. “Half Silences” is a poetic account of the power people can have on each other, and Loma’s softness in the atmospheric instrumentation helps to paint the scene with vivid emotion and stark beauty that will be unique to each listener.
Loma’s new album Don’t Shy Away comes out through Sub Pop on October 23. You can find the band on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
