"Afterthought," by the Saskatoon pop-rock band Close Talker, has a way of burrowing deep under the skin. The most slitheringly infectious, achingly plaintive plea this side of Rhye, the track — the lead single from 2017's Lens — is a great, glorious ball of yearning, carried over by guitar lines as sleek and slippery as a greased water balloon.
In a development that hopefully portends a new album, the band recently unveiled another moody, sweetly impeccable gem in "Half Past Nine." Those bold, chiming guitars are back, this time in aid of a warmhearted rumination on moments we celebrate, romanticize and fight to preserve in our memories.
"'Half Past Nine' is about a concert the three of us attended, at our favorite summer festival," the band writes in a press statement. "It's about looking around at friends, at strangers, and seeing each person sing along to words that mean so much to them — words that have carried them through times only they know about. It's about holding on to the moments that you never want to end, and then desperately try to remember them after they're gone. It takes hindsight to recognize when something profound has happened, but every now and then, you're able to sense it right in the moment. This song is about those moments and the attempts to cling to them."
For the new accompanying video, filmed by Ben Giesbrecht, the band spent a fair bit of time shivering in the ocean.
"Wish we could say this was the first time we nearly got hypothermia for a Close Talker video, but that would be a lie," the band writes. "We seem to have made it a habit to shoot videos in the freezing cold — and this video, although beautiful, was borderline foolish. We shot the video on the beautiful coastline of Vancouver Island where we had been surfing the day before. The beach was vacant because it was too cold for the locals, so we thought we'd seize the moment and film a video that is cyclical in nature, beginning and ending in the freezing-cold ocean. The video includes themes of chasing moments or feelings from the past, only to recognize that you'll always be chasing if you don't stop and enjoy the simple and often overlooked beauty around you."
"Half Past Nine" is out now via Slow Weather.
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