No Swoon - "Beside"

I’ve been bumping “Beside” by No Swoon since it dropped on December 15th, but it officially hit streaming platforms on New Year’s Day, and I gotta say, it’s definitely playlist worthy. The dreamy single capped off an interesting year for the Brooklyn duo that saw them launch their own series of digital zines after the pandemic upended the music world. The first zine, Cancelled Tour, had a great feature on Look At My Records! and also included several great pieces on some of the incredible artists that the band was slated to tour with before venues across the world went dark. The second issue, Do It Ourselves, dropped in mid-December and highlights some of the challenges that artists have encountered over the last nine months. It includes a bunch of excellent interviews, features, and special contributions from an array of artists, including Liz Pelly, Ganser No Joy, Moaning, and more.

The band released “Beside” in conjunction with Do It Ourselves, and it’s a nice, soothing audio companion to the reading material. While the songs on the band’s superb 2019 self-titled debut had a tendency to flood the senses with muscular synths and guitars, “Beside” is a bit of a foil, as it builds off of more tranquil and calming instrumentation. Tasha Abbott’s lyrics describe a surreal, segmented dream sequence that sees her traveling on an upside-down road that eventually ends in what she describes as a “bright, calm space.” “Beside” sequentially follows “Don’t Wake Up, Wake Up” from the duo’s debut album, which powerfully describes the first part in this series of dreams. I recommend listening to them consecutively to get the full experience!

Stream the track below! You can purchase “Beside” and the Do It Ourselves zine via the band’s website. All proceeds from sales of the zine and the single benefit The Okra Project. Check the band out on Bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram, and Facebook.