Last year, Nandi Rose released yet another great new Half Waif album, The Caretaker, and she’s following it up with a two-track 7″ next month. Today, she’s sharing the first of those songs, “Orange Blossoms,” which starts with a hypnotic synth as Rose recounts a paralyzing passivity brought about by immense responsibility. “Somebody buy me roses/ Somebody make sure I get out of bed today,” she sings. Rose works through her powerlessness in real-time, her refrain of “I don’t wanna be here” morphs by the song’s end into a commitment to plant new seeds and try to keep growing. “And when I see the ghost of orange blossoms in the snow,” go its last lines. “I’ll know it was you and I’m coming soon.”

Here’s her statement on the track:

I wrote ‘Orange Blossoms’ soon after finishing The Caretaker, and in some ways, it feels like the next chapter in that story. In the fall of 2019, I found myself taking care of someone close to me who was struggling with addiction, and as a caretaker often does, I internalized that immense pain and took it on as my own. It’s paralyzing, to feel so powerless when trying to help someone you love. The song came out like an incantation, a desperate plea to be rescued from wrestling with everything. But it unfolded into something more resolute as I refocused on the task of taking responsibility for myself and my own life. The song touches on a phrase that kept coming back to me at that time, which was: ‘no one’s going to do it for you.’ You can help and be helped, you can love and be loved, but salvation is your own to seek and claim.

Check it out below.

“Orange Blossoms” b/w “Party’s Over” is out 2/24 via Anti- Records. Pre-order it here.