Today Ottawa artist Townes dropped a new track called Tell Me What I’m Living For.
Featuring vocals by Jessica Eblie, the song has that early 90s indie synth pop-rock vibe.
About the track:
“Tell Me What I’m Living For” is a nod to the cowboy psychedelia that was Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood’s 1968 duets. Written during the COVID-19 pandemic, it asks the question we’re all thinking as one day somersaults into the next: “What are we living for?” Without a typical verse-chorus structure, the repetitive bittersweet phrases sound a lot like how one might feel lately — stuck on a loop.
The track features audio samples from the 1964 film The Last Man on Earth, which follows the outbreak of an infection that turns people into zombies. One could draw an eerie parallel from the movie references to today’s times and at the same time feel comforted by the familiar 60’s Americana soundscapes. Jessica Elbie, a classical singer and uOttawa music program graduate lends her warm, folksy vocals to enhance the country-pop feeling.
This release is unlike anything Townes has done in the past, and closes the chapter on his current experimental phase. This single is the last of four that were “meant to all be somewhat different from each other stylistically and go in directions I don’t usually bring my music” says Matt Radich of Townes. You can expect Radich’s future projects to be more indie-pop-rock focused.
Tell Me What I’m Living For gets:
/10.
Townes – Tell Me What I’m Living For [Listen]
