Nicholas Krgovich – “Lido”
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Nicholas Krgovich’s breezy, lushly orchestrated lounge-pop often has a touch of winking artifice about it, but the feelings on display on his new album are all too real. Last year, the Vancouver multi-instrumentalist fell in love for the first time, got dumped for the first time, and had his heart broken for the first time. In the wake of that ordeal, feelings and songs began pouring out of him, and we’ve already heard two from the resulting collection “Ouch”, “Rosemary” and “Belief.” Today he’s shared a third.
“Lido” is a portrait of that failed relationship, a document of its final days and a meditation on its aftermath. “I want someone to know me/ I want that fart in the night/ To be surrounded by love/ Safe and at home,” Krgovich sings plaintively over downcast strums. “I thought you were an answer/ But maybe you were a call/ To an aching need I never knew was there/ To a gaping void, a boulder that don’t move.” This is what Krgovich has to say about the track:
I wrote “Lido” last year on May 29th. The sun was out and it was hot, so I rode my bike to the park and laid on a towel on the grass. I had a book of poems by Hafiz and a notebook with me and ended up writing this song very quickly that afternoon. I know this scene sounds impossibly twee but since the weather in Vancouver is usually trash and I’d been spending many sunny days inside recording the album, writing outside felt crucial.
This was the second to last song I made for the record. I felt like I could have written 100 more but I also felt like I needed to stop. The important bases were covered — this album was not meant to be a 10 LP boxset although at the time it felt like it could have been.
I think there is a resigned sense of clarity and acceptance in this one. The sound of someone who all of a sudden knows the thing they had going wasn’t what they’d hoped or thought it was at all: things turning from a love to a lesson, or something.
I went on tour and played the “OUCH” songs a lot last year. Whether or not there was a bit of knowing laughter after the “fart in the night” line became a sort of vibe barometer as to how free the room felt.
I also truly hope that Dan Treacy of Television Personalities doesn’t sue my ass for lifting that guitar line from “Diary Of A Young Man.” It fit too well and was too satisfying and I wasn’t really thinking or second guessing anything. I was just going and going and this song was near the end of the line. Also! When visiting Vancouver, go to the bar that this song is named after, it is great. Bye!
Listen below.
“OUCH” is out 10/26 via Tin Angel Records. Pre-order it here.