London-based eight piece caroline is a little over a month shy of releasing their eponymous debut album (Feb. 25, Rough Trade), which made Paste’s most anticipated 2022 releases list. Following some excellent singles such as “Skydiving onto the library roof” and “IWR,” the band is offering up “Good morning (red)” as their latest.
Taking upon more of their Midwestern emo influences, caroline’s “Good morning (red)” is a folky slow burn with growing violins and warm guitars at the forefront. With seemingly no proper climax, the song switches between moments of silence punctuated by light percussion before easing back into a groove.
Speaking on the song, guitarist and vocalist Mike O’Malley said:
We wrote the basic electric guitar parts, drums and “Good morning, it’s that time again” vocal line in early 2017 and used to play it as a loop for ages, twice as fast as it is on the recorded version, as this kind of never-ending, triumphant emo song. It felt like there was something to be hopeful for in early 2017. This very damaging political consensus was being challenged and there was a real sense that things could be different. That feeling is maybe best summed up by [guitarist/vocalist] Casper Hughes’ shouting (“Can I be happy in this world? We’ll have to change it, it doesn’t suit us.”) As we got interested in other sounds and recording techniques, we always came back to “Good morning”, reworking it and developing it in line with whatever we were interested in at the time. In its final recorded form, it’s kind of a song in two halves. The first half is how the band started: us playing a long song live in a room. And the second half is more what we are interested in now: different recorded worlds co-existing and colliding with one another. It’s the first song we ever wrote so it’s exciting that people are finally going to hear it in recorded form.
Below, listen to “Good morning (red)” and preorder caroline ahead of its Feb. 25 release here.
