Last year was supposed to be a big one for Lightning Bug. Just before COVID-19 derailed so many of the world’s best-laid plans, Audrey Kang’s project signed to Fat Possum and announced tour dates surrounding SXSW. Within days, the festival had become one of the first live music events to cancel due to the pandemic. The rest of Lightning Bug’s itinerary was soon scrapped as well. But hey, things are looking up where public health is concerned, and Kang’s crew is back today with the lead single from their debut album.

A Color Of The Sky is dropping in June. It’s preceded today by “The Right Thing Is Hard To Do,” a song that reminds me of Mazzy Star and Mojave 3 among other masters of languid shimmering splendor. It’s accompanied by Melanie Kleid’s animated video, based on a story by Kleid and Lightning Bug. Here’s Kang with more about the song:

Here I wanted to connect how the struggles and flaws within the individual are mirrored in the greater problems of society. How do we as individuals know we are on the right path? How do we as a society, as a species, know we are on the right path? So I started with myself, and my own struggles, touching on how I hide myself away from other people, on my stage fright, on my inability to be vulnerable, on this feeling I used to have that I needed to prove I was worthy of being alive. Then I tried to connect these struggles outward to global issues like xenophobia, arbitrary borders, the lines we draw between ourselves and the environment, and the ways we sacrifice the health of the planet for human convenience.

Listen below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “The Return”
02 “The Right Thing Is Hard To Do”
03 “September Song, pt. ii”
04 “Wings Of Desire”
05 “The Chase”
06 “Song Of The Bell”
07 “I Lie Awake”
08 “Reprise”
09 “A Color Of The Sky”
10 “The Flash”

A Color Of The Sky is out 6/25 on Fat Possum. Pre-order it here.