Small Black – “The Bridge”
![](https://static.stereogum.com/uploads/2021/03/Small-Black-1614787716.jpg)
Caroline Mathis
The New York band Small Black were part of the original chillwave explosion of the late ’00s and early ’10s, and they’ve been quiet ever since the release of their 2015 album Best Blues. Next month, Small Black will return with the new album Cheap Dreams, and we’ve already posted their singles “Tampa” and “Duplex.” Today, the band has shared another new track, and it’s a wistful one.
Since chillwave was already music built on nostalgia, what do you call a new song that gives you bittersweet feelings about missing the chillwave era? Is that double nostalgia? Small Black’s new jam “The Bridge” is a soft, gentle, contemplative number built on soft pianos and bleary washes of guitar. It’s pretty.
The video is pretty, too. Director Samuel Stonefield shot the video in crisp black-and-white in the far-flung Queens neighborhood of Rockaway Beach. The figure at the center of the video is Rece Delo, apparently a TikTok star of some sort, and Stonefield films him skateboarding, surfing, and looking generally beatific. Check it out below, via Nylon.
Cheap Dreams is out 4/9 on 100% Electronica. Pre-order it here.