Sorority Noise’s sophomore album Joy, Departed was one of the best records of the year because of how it looked suicide and depression and addiction straight in the eye without flinching, or maybe flinching just enough to let us in. “Either Way,” the stark lead single from the band’s upcoming new EP It Kindly Stopped For Me, is a tender and understanding remembrance for a friend now gone, and a reminder of how we’re often blinded by our own struggles and unable to help those around us going through the same thing. Cameron Boucher espouses the same kind of celebratory self-help mantras that littered Joy, Departed — “I saw that I could be more than my head let me believe,” “saw the chance to rid myself of my toxic waste” — but it’s noticeably muted and tinged with regret, and by the track’s end you understand why as the roundabout construction ends on a dark note: “You saw your life and you took it/ Saw a chance to leave a life you couldn’t lead/ You took your last breath/ I was there when you took it/ You know that we would love you either way.” Listen via DIY below.

Tracklist:
01 “Either Way”
02 “A Will”
03 “Fource”
04 “XC”

It Kindly Stopped For Me is out 4/22 via Topshelf Records.