Rising London octet caroline are building the release of their self-titled debut album next month, and following recent beauty “IWR” comes a new song called “Good morning (red)”. Giving us some backstory on the song, guitarist/vocalist Mike O’Malley says:
“We wrote the basic electric guitar parts, drums and “Good morning, it’s that time again” vocal line in early 2017 and used to play it as a loop for ages, twice as fast as it is on the recorded version, as this kind of never-ending, triumphant emo song. It felt like there was something to be hopeful for in early 2017. This very damaging political consensus was being challenged and there was a real sense that things could be different. That feeling is maybe best summed up by [guitarist/vocalist] Casper Hughes’ shouting (“Can I be happy in this world? We’ll have to change it, it doesn’t suit us.”) As we got interested in other sounds and recording techniques, we always came back to ‘Good morning’, reworking it and developing it in line with whatever we were interested in at the time. In its final recorded form, it’s kind of a song in two halves. The first half is how the band started: us playing a long song live in a room. And the second half is more what we are interested in now: different recorded worlds co-existing and colliding with one another. It’s the first song we ever wrote so it’s exciting that people are finally going to hear it in recorded form.”
Although born in a time of political discontent, and developed over years when things only seemed to get worse, “Good morning (red)” has an undeniable and insuppressible optimism to it. There’s romantic feeling dripping from every line of the seesawing strings, and even though there’s wistfulness in the atmosphere and vocals, the brightness of future possibility shines through. The repeated “Good morning / It’s that time again” suggests more hard work today, further emphasised by the yelps of “Can I be happy in this world? / We’ll have to change it.” However, it’s the kind of hard work that you feel good about doing, knowing that you’re building towards a positive tomorrow for everyone.
Watch the video for “Good morning (red)” below or find the song on streaming platforms.
caroline’s self-titled debut album comes out on February 25 through Rough Trade (pre-order/save). You can follow caroline on Facebook and Instagram.
