Bent Denim – “Miss You, Kid”
With 2015’s Romances You, the New Orleans duo Bent Denim perfected a woozy, weary, uniquely modern strand of indie-pop — sort of an electro-organic twee with a Southern sensibility. The music was gentle, understated, and pretty, with lyrics that weren’t afraid to get ugly in their depiction of unhealthy obsession with an object of romantic interest. Upon premiering the album, I wrote, “It’s a drowsy, depressive sort of music, the sound of a technology-addled imagination anxiously drifting through that space between dreams and waking life.”
That sound and substance continues to develop on “Miss You, Kid,” the lead single from their upcoming Diamond Jubilee EP. But this time the relating seems a bit more mature, one side of an actual two-way conversation. Against a downcast backdrop of guitars, keyboards, and programmed drums, a glassy-eyed story of longing and distance unfurls, marked by lyrics such as, “I want you to know, you’re wherever I go/ A splatter of pixels on my phone.” Listen below.
Diamond Jubilee is out in April.