Last month, Cameron Picton, formerly of defunct London experimental group Black Midi, announced the self-titled debut album for his new project My New Band Believe. With the news, he shared the single "Numerology," which technically isn't on the forthcoming project. Today, he's shared another song, which is on upcoming album and called "Love Story."
"Love Story" is not a cover of Taylor Swift's mega-hit. Instead, it's a sweeping ballad with a melancholic piano intro. "You are the love of my life/ Nothing compares to a lonely minute with you," Picton sings. Preparation for a nice dinner date begins: "I'm soaking beans on the side/ Chopping tomatoes, while you wash the rice." Strings linger in the background as the vegetables simmer, and lush acoustic guitars add some richness. Then lyrically things take, and it's unclear if any of this lovely night was real or a surreal hallucination. Even though there's no exact resolution, the strings continue to swell and "Love Story" ends feeling like a romantic fever dream.
In a press release, Picton shared the following:
With this whole record, I was trying to make another case for how the modern singer-songwriter album could sound, both in terms of its production and the writing of the songs themselves. I felt some more popular examples of the genre released between 2019-2023 would make the big feel inconsequential and the small nothing at all, so with this I’ve tried to give consequence to the small to make the big feel real.
Below, watch the video directed by Parker Corey, which ends with an unused snippet of Kiran Leonard's string arrangement.
My New Band Believe is out 4/10 on Rough Trade. Pre-order here.
