Kate Teague – “The Temporary”

Casey Shaw

Kate Teague – “The Temporary”

Casey Shaw

Last year, Kate Teague released her self-titled debut EP, a collection of music that often felt like a dreamlike reflection of her southern home. (It was one of our favorite EPs of 2019.) Now, she’s back with a new song called “The Temporary,” and it finds her leaning way further into that dreaminess.

“I wrote this song when I first started to listen to a lot of experimental artists like Colleen and Jenny Hval, so I was beginning to play around with drum and synth loops,” Teague explained in a statement. “I also wrote this right before a massive transition in my life (which I’m still very much experiencing), but those feelings of hindrance and uneasiness about the future have taken on a new meaning for me during this pandemic.”

The big change, as you might be able to guess from Teague’s new influences, is some prevalent synth textures. It makes “The Temporary” an interesting hybrid: You can hear it as a bit of ’90s-indebted dream-pop, but you could also imagine it stripped down to a rootsy lament. In its current form, however, it finds Teague making sense of life changes — chiefly, leaving Oxford for New Orleans — against a backdrop that’s fittingly aqueous and unresolved. It’s also gorgeous. If this is indicative of wherever Teague’s going next, it sounds like an exciting destination. Check it out below.

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