Ali MacQueen is a songwriter based in London who has had a career on the peripheries of music, writing about it for the likes of Record Collector, teaching guitar, and being in bands like the nearly-signed The Autoplan. Throughout, he’s always maintained a determination to keep writing music, and that’s what’s inspired “Loretto”, his new single. As is often the case, the song came from innocuous beginnings, as he explains:
“Loretto came about in one of those fleeting moments of life, walking down a backstreet just north of Oxford Street. At the end of this alleyway was some graffiti, which was tagged “Loretto”, and that was it. By the time I walked out from the backstreet and out back on to the street, I was humming the chorus…“
And on the theme:
“I remembered how I felt when I was stuck in my town, when I thought there was so much in front of me, and so did a lot of my friends. But places like that have a way of killing who you are, and extinguishing your dreams until you forget what your passions were, and you fall into a soul-crushing cycle of just existing. So it’s really a call to try and avoid that before things get too late, stay true to yourself and look forwards, not backwards.”
This determination to continue is exactly where we find him on “Loretto”, which opens with the mantra: “whatever gets you down the highway / whatever gets you through the night.” The name “Loretto” might have come from some graffitti, but in Ali MacQueen’s musical world it is like a fictional town, a place he must reach at all costs, travelling through the dark hours to reach the promised land. This journey is animated in the song, which has a simple driving rhythm guitar and beat, while organ and other atmospherics animate the shifting landscapes outside. Some may hear echoes of Beck or Gomez, but to me it hews closer to the searching and soulful Americana of Songs: Ohia. Either way, it’s an inspiring trip.
Listen to “Loretto” below or your preferred streaming platform.
“Loretto” is out today via Blaggers Records. You can find Ali MacQueen on Facebook and Instagram.
