London’s Goat Girl are releasing their second album, On All Fours, on January 29, and following the excellent lead single “Sad Cowboy” they return today with another pre-album single, “The Crack”. The new song has an interesting concept, with the band saying it “emerged from an imagined post-apocalyptic world whereby people flee into space for a new life on an unruined planet, as the result of the pillaging of Planet Earth.”
The polychromatic synth squelch that characterised “Sad Cowboy” is present again in “The Crack”, and it gives texture to this sci-fi adventure song – although this is not a family-friendly romp, but a twitching and nervous projection of what might well happen to our planet. “The crack appeared a long time ago,” begins Lottie Cream, adding “the people made their way to space” – and Goat Girl’s surging guitars and rhythmic propulsion invite us to imagine the panicked abortion of Planet Earth. Cream’s voice remains calm at the centre, like a deity living outside of the trials of humanity, simply observing their plight and relaying the facts of society’s downfall, all while Goat Girl double down into their frantic groove – an intoxicating combination.
“The Crack” also comes with a beautifully conceptual video, which transports us to a different world. Director Molly Ann Pendlebury explains: “‘The Crack’ intimates a world at the mercy of its inhabitants. I wanted to create a video which indirectly plays with notions of environmentalism and our relationship to the earth whilst never explicitly being a film about climate change… Playing with subtle and restrictive movement, the performers are ‘on all fours’; alluding to the album’s title, and moving collectively as one; portraying a journey through a land lost to time.”
Watch the video for “The Crack” below or listen to the song on streaming platforms.
Goat Girl’s new album On All Fours comes out on January 29 through Rough Trade. You can follow the band on Facebook and Instagram.
