From the looks of that photo, Whitney aren’t in Kansas anymore. But they apparently were there long enough to be inspired to write their excellent new single. Like so many Whitney songs, “Kansas” sublimely captures the spirit of rootsy retro soft rock, swaddling Julian Ehrlich’s falsetto with a lush and wistful swirl of beauty like if Wilco were ever actually writing for AM radio. Indie superproducers Brad Cook and Jonathan Rado both worked on this one, as did Chicago’s Ziyad Asrar and Whitney themselves. The resulting track conjures the feelings this band consistently does so well — but alas, “the feeling comes and goes, like the wind blows over my shoulders.”

In a press release, the band explains that “Kansas” is an older track that eventually morphed into “FTA,” the sort-of title track from 2019’s Forever Turned Around:

We started “Kansas” back in 2017 at the beginning of the Forever Turned Around writing sessions. The initial idea saw a couple different mutations but eventually we fully rewrote it into the title track for LP2. At some point during tour rehearsals in 2022 we decided to put the original unfinished “Kansas” in the set to see how people would respond and it quickly became a centerpiece. So in March of this year we finished writing and recording “Kansas” as it was originally imagined and we’re thrilled to finally release it.

I’m glad they did that. “Kansas” is a great song. Listen below.