Brooklyn sludge trio A Deer A Horse let listeners read between the lines on their new single, “Double Wide” (streaming). The track is a heavy-leaded five minute foray into a scene with sparse details, yet every meticulously-chosen word creates an atmosphere of oncoming dread, each detail growled by vocalist and bassist Angela Phillips a Chekhovian set piece of extreme importance.
The elements described by Phillips on “Double Wide” – a knot, a shut door, the experience of meeting god – they all compose a tableau of possible final thoughts by a family member of Phillips, who several years ago took his own life. The bleak realness of the track is difficult to confront as a listener, but according to Phillips, the process of writing and performing “Double Wide” allows her relative’s passing to make “more sense, and it becomes a little easier to heal.” A trial by fire of emotional endurance and survival, “Double Wide” is a difficult track to consume, but the raw truth that informs its inception makes it necessary, important listening. –Connor Beckett McInerney (@b_ck_tt), Photo by Kirsten Theon (@daggers_for_eyes)