On their recent single “Outside the Green,” New Orleans indie rock band St. Lorelei grappled with mind-body dualism–specifically, the dissonance that can exist between a person’s internal life and their embodied self, especially in a disembodied, digital society. Bandleader and singer/songwriter Jo Morris took inspiration from The Matrix in writing it. The band’s latest track, “Night So Dark,” takes on a related theme, but this time around, Morris had something more elemental in mind.
“‘Night So Dark’ I wrote to the moon,” she says, “thinking of being transported by her magic and following ghosts, following the ghost of a relationship that’s been doomed from the start. A relationship where my body meant nothing to the person I was giving it to, myself, or the moon…just an empty vessel.”
It’s the third single from St. Lorelei’s upcoming debut album, Beast, and it chisels another facet into their idiosyncratic sound. On “Outside the Green,” acoustic guitars and tambourines rang out, bright and jangly. On Beast’s second single, “Wish,” the band took on a darker tone for a slow-dancing ‘60s pop homage. This tale of ghosts and machines lands somewhere between the two as Morris’ gives her plaintive choruses an intoxicating shot of the cosmic.
The band first previewed the record in January of 2019 with the Bandcamp release of Demos, an EP featuring early practice-space recordings of what would ultimately become the singles from Beast. After that, Morris, along with bassist Marcus Bronson, keyboard player Philip Cooper, guitarist Alec Vance, and drummer Steve Walkup, took the songs into the studio with engineer/mixer Mark Bingham to craft the album versions.
You can stream “Night So Dark” below. Beast will be available October 30, 2020, and you can preorder it now via Bandcamp.
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