TRACK REVIEW: Pillow Queens - Be By Your Side

TRACK REVIEW:

Pillow Queens

Be By Your Side

9.6/10

The track, Be By Your Side, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vnnhGmvXf4

RELEASE DATE:

19th January, 2022

ORIGIN:

Dublin, EIRE

GENRE:

Indie Rock

The album, Leave the Light On, is available from 1st April, 2022

LABEL:

Royal Mountain Records

PRODUCER:

Tommy McLaughlin

__________

I previously reviewed Pillow Queens…

PHOTO CREDIT: Ciara McMullan

back in 2020. With a new track, Be By Your Side, out, I wanted to return to the Dublin group. I shall try not to bring too much of the same information/interviews to this review as I did for their excellent track, Child of Prague. I am eager to return to the music of Sarah Corcoran, Rachel Lyons, Cathy McGuinness and Pamela Connolly. The last time I reviewed them, it was around their debut album, In Waiting. Now, with the announcement of their second studio album, I am coming back to the brilliance of the EIRE band. Before I get to the current cut from the album, there are a few things to cover. First, the group offer some biography on their official website:

“Pillow Queens formed in Winter 2016 with the immediate release of their demo EP Calm Girls, which sparked a successful string of UK & Irish dates & festival appearances.

Their second EP State of the State made its way onto BBC 6 Music’s playlists, with Steve Lamacq calling them “deceptively infectious, with sharp hooks and sharp nails”. The lead single Favourite picked up lots of great support on the UK’s national airwaves, including plays on BBC RADIO 1, BBC Introducing, RADIO X & Amazing Radio.

After two more UK tours, and two sellout hometown gigs, the band soon found themselves more and more comfortable on bigger stages, opening for the likes of American Football and Pussy Riot, capping off Summer 2018 with a stadium performance opening for Idles & Future Islands.

This quick momentum led to the band working with Mercury Prize nominated producer Tommy McLaughlin for their next single Gay Girls – which received a nomination for the RTE Choice Music Prize song of the year, as well as International airplay on NPR’s World Cafe & KEXP. 2019 saw Pillow Queens venture into mainland Europe, with an appearance at this year’s Eurosonic Festival, followed by an impressive string of European tour dates supporting Soak.

Pillow Queens' debut album 'In Waiting' is out now.

They continued to earn enthusiastic support at home and In the UK before they independently released their 2020 LP In Waiting. The album was a major breakthrough for the band, earning them praise from outlets like The Guardian, who called them “2020’s most exciting indie rockers,” NPR, NME, DIY, and The Line of Best Fit, a Band To Watch feature from Stereogum, an Irish Album of The Year nomination, and most remarkably of all a US national television appearance on the Late Late Show w/ James Corden.

The band are returning to announce their sophomore LP Leave The Light On, which is due out April 1st on Royal Mountain Records”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Faolán Carey

One of the defining aspects of Pillow Queens’ music is their lyrics. I noticed through In Waiting that the songs’ lyrics really stood out. Always so memorable and quotable, Stereogum discussed the lyrical brilliance in an article from January last year:

“Something else that makes Pillow Queens sound like no other band is Connolly’s literary melodrama as a songwriter, which clashes wonderfully with their DIY spirit. Hearing Connolly wail, “You’ll have my head/ You’ll have my head on a silver plate!” over a wall of distortion on “Liffey” feels like an inverse of ethereal folk acts who sing about therapy and scrolling Instagram. (She has modern moments too, regretting “belly achin’ ’bout a fire sign” on “Gay Girls”). It might just sound folkloric to Americans, but the drama is heightened by Connolly’s studies of Ireland; she describes Dublin as a “sore sad city” on “Handsome Wife” and reaches for comfort in the “embrace of the northern bay” on “Donagmede.” On that track, in the indie rock tradition of romanticizing towns like Stockton, California or Omaha, Nebraska, Connolly begs a lover to “Stay for a week/ In sunny Donaghmede,” her suburban hometown, best known for its shopping malls. “We were very into the Bloomington, Indiana scene when we were like 16 or 17,” explains Corcoran. “Songs always mention Bloomington; we were like, ‘One day, it’ll be Donaghmede and Finglas.'”

The grandeur of her lyrics, Connolly says, is a result of imagery sponged up during her Catholic childhood. “It’s almost just cultural here, biblical language. References to god are just woven into language — I mean look at Hozier’s music” she says, referencing the singer whose sex ballad “Take Me To Church” became a global hit in 2014. The effect is particularly delicious on “Handsome Wife,” a queer fantasy of a marital bliss, when Connolly paints scenes like, “Me and all your fathers’ daughters/ Lay beside the tide to take us/ Kissed the bride and fought you favors/ I may not be the wife you want but I’m pregnant with the virgin tongue”.

I have been a fan of Pillow Queens for years now. It was exciting seeing how they had grown and evolved since their first single or two. Such a phenomenal debut album, it took a lot of hard work and effort to get to where they did. Seeing as my first experience with Pillow Queens was them playing live in London, I got the feeling that they wrote their songs with the live crowd in mind. NME talked about their great progress (in an interview when their debut was released), and how Pillow Queens consider themselves more of a live band:

“All of the four-piece’s tireless work over the last four years has seen them grow into a force to be reckoned with, gradually progressing from the promise of early EPs ‘Calm Girls’ (2016) and ‘State Of The State’ (2018). ‘In Waiting’ bears all the hallmarks the band showed on those first releases – surging, infectious indie melodies, big gang vocals and, yes, that current of positivity – but feels more fully realised and accomplished than ever.

When they were making the album, the group’s focus was on how the songs would translate live. “We were definitely thinking about playing bigger stages, bigger audiences, new audiences, new countries,” says Corcoran. The pandemic, though, has forced them to look at the record from a new angle and, subsequently, consider themselves as more than a live band”.

I will come to their new album very soon. When exploring Pillow Queens, one needs to go back and look at their debut. It must have been quite momentum-sapping putting a debut album during the pandemic. In September 2020, as the pandemic was severe and gigs were not happening, they launched a much-anticipated release. This time around, they get to release an album when they can tour. CLASH spoke with the band about the timing of releasing an album during a pandemic. The group managed to make it work:

“Among all the chaos of COVID-19, it was never going to be easy to release an album - and a debut one at that - but they found a way to make it work for them. Pamela describes her experience. “I think it’s been different for a lot of people. I think it’s hard to complain too much because I’m healthy and all the girls in the band are healthy.”

We spent it separately so it was hard to keep up the creative aspect of the band. Had we at least been within 2km of each other, we could have potentially still worked on [creative] stuff but, in saying that, I think we may have benefited in regards to releasing the album, because there was a lot of admin stuff to do, there were a lot of contingency plans in terms of how we could get enough money to release the album and, during lockdown, that’s when we all did that. I think if the lockdown didn’t happen, that would have been a lot harder to figure out”.

‘In Waiting’ is actually being released independently by the band. Speaking of the debut album, Pamela is “super excited” to be sharing ‘In Waiting’ with their fans. She describes creating the album as “awesome” and a way for the band to really develop their sound. “It was a labour of love”, she jokes. “I think it’s a weird time to be releasing an album but I think it’s the right time for us”.

Pamela explains that the band did consider pushing the release date back but decided against it. “What’s the point when you’re super excited? We are still excited regardless of things not being normal per se. We’re still super excited for people to hear what we have. We’re super excited for people to receive the vinyls that they’ve ordered. I just want people to listen to it and, if they enjoy it, that’s amazing”.

One of the most important aspects of their music is how Dublin feeds through it. The city is deeply important when it comes to the music scene and the D.N.A. in the country. Over the past few years, there has been a wave of great bands from the EIRE capital. Even though a lot of the groups are male, Pillow Queens are offering a stunning alternative and strength that will inspire other groups led by womxn. In this interview with YUCK, the subject of Dublin cropped up:

“It would be silly not to mention Dublin. The Irish music scene, obviously you’re a big part of it. How does the city and the scene influence you as a band?

A huge amount, I think. It influences music lyrically, and Dublin and Ireland in general has a very specific sound, the rock music that is coming out of Ireland right now is probably bigger than it ever has been in the past ten to twenty years, and, it’s not just what it always had been. You know it’s rock music, pop music, R&B, wrap and it’s so much more of a variety, there's a resurgence of an appreciation in music, and because we are a small country the scene is quite small, so you also have relationships with these big names and smaller names. It’s a nice community and there’s obviously a lot of things that go against being from a small country, but I think that community is probably one of the biggest positives.

Going back to Dublin again, I feel like there are a lot of male bands coming out of the city at the minute. That’s obviously not endemic of the scene, why do you think this is?

Well at the moment there is actually a bit of a thing happening, because some data was released with regard to Irish female musicians and the radio play they get against the Irish male musicians and consistently see 2%, 5% airplay from radio stations across Ireland. I personally listen to a lot of Irish male bands, but predominantly I listen to a lot of non-male fronted bands, so I know they’re there, and I know the quality is huge. So, there is a bit of struggle at the moment because we see these male acts, and it’s not necessarily the rock bands that are getting the air play. It’s the Gavin James’ and the Dermot Kennedy’s, that are the huge names that are getting that push forward, and obviously for a rock band we don’t expect to get that kind of push”.

Maybe we do not give Irish music as much credit as it deserves. We still talk heavily about the impact of London, though Ireland is definitely taking a stand and showcasing its very best talent! If we have overlooked Ireland in the past, the country is definitely back at the fore. Coming back to the YUCK interview, we learn about the quality coming out of the country:

“Pillow Queens have cemented themselves at the forefront of a continued resurgence for Irish music; the last five years have seen the emergence of the likes of Fontaines D.C., SOAK, Silverbacks and The Murder Capital, but there’s something a little unique about the noise that Dublin’s latest export are creating. The all-female four piece, made up of vocalist/guitarist Sarah Corcoran, vocalist, guitarist and bassist Pamela Connolly, guitarist Cathy McGuinness, and drummer Rachel Lyons, have seen their stature sky-rocket in the short space of time they’ve been together. As they prepare to self-release their debut album, we caught up with Pam to chat about all things PQ.

You’ve smashed on to the scene this year, creating a fanbase almost without playing any live shows; what’s that been like for you as a band?

So, I think it was the initial over saturation of ourselves as much as possible that kind of allowed us to develop a fan base. Our fan base is quite non-male, although males as well and queer so I guess maybe some of it as well is seeing something different on a stage. Something that they can relate to. But I’m not entirely sure. We could probably do the same thing again and get different results. I think it was just a time. I’m not entirely sure myself why that worked cause we went against the grain, you know we did that thing where you release music right before Christmas, which is the one thing people tell you; if you’re gonna release music, don’t do it at the end of the year. We were like ‘fuck it we have nothing to lose.’ We don’t like waiting around, so I think that was mostly it, really [laughs]”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Vanessa Ifediora

A lot of British acts sing in a forced American accent. I think staying true to where you are from is key. I love when Scottish artists sing in their native accents. It gives the music authenticity and truth. Pillow Queens have never been a band who wanted to mimic American artists or dumb things down. They have kept their accents. Ourculture spoke with them last year. The group revealed why they sing in their accents:

“It seems ridiculous that this even needs to be commented upon, but singing in your accents… it’s something that’s remarkably lacking in the mainstream music industry, particularly in the UK and Ireland. Was this something that was ever discussed amongst yourselves or was it just a given that you would sing in your accent?

It’s certainly something we’re conscious of. Growing up listening to a lot of music from outside Ireland you tend to just end up singing in a fairly neutral accent. We want people to have an instant recognition of where we’re from when they listen to our music as we think it gives a little more context to who we are. We love the way we sing, and we like that people enjoy it but it’s just our preference. If when you sing your accent doesn’t come out, more power to you. Music is escapism and the way someone chooses to express their art is completely up to them”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Miguel Ruiz

I am going to keep on this theme for a little bit. Metro also touched on this in their interview. What defines Irish music is how artists bring so much passion, authenticity and personality to their music by keeping it in their own voice. It is a beautiful and distinct sound:

“Serious lo-fi in the style of The Cranberries or not, there’s no doubt that Pillow Queens’ music is distinctly them. Songs like Favourite, Gay Girls, Ragin’ and Rats mix grungy, gritty guitars with insanely catchy hooks, all sung in thick Irish accents and peppered with Dublin slang.

‘I’ve certainly made music where I didn’t sing in my accent, and that didn’t necessarily get me anywhere,’ Pamela said. ‘It’s something people remember you for. Eventually, I hope it goes over their heads and they think “well that’s just what Pillow Queens sound like”. And that’s just what Irish bands sound like, we’re not the only ones who sing in our accents. I certainly remembered a lot of bands when I was younger because of their accents – like Catatonia, that was gorgeous hearing that thick Welsh accent.

‘It might grate on some people, which is inevitable, but feck them. It is what it is. Even if we didn’t use our accents, we’d still annoy someone.’

In fact, it’s that uniquely Irish perspective that has given rise to some of Pillow Queens’ best songs – and there’s no better example than Gay Girls. Their breakthrough hit, an infectious indie track with a killer chorus, was accompanied by a video showing Irish schoolgirls running riot in their Communion dresses which brought the song to a whole new audience and gained critical acclaim”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Faolán Carey

Politics and the changes in Ireland definitely relate to the band. They cover social and political concerns in their music. Coming back to the interview from Stereogum, and it seems that, in some ways, the group are a product and result of the political movements in their country:

“Corcoran says Pillow Queens is a product of Ireland’s political moment in a few ways. “We grew up and went to school pre-recession, at the height of the Celtic Tiger era when Ireland was very rich. We had it drilled into us that you’ve got to have a career, earn big, own property,” she explains. “When it hit and there were no jobs, we were like, ‘What are we supposed to do now?’ I think a lot of creative people said, ‘Fuck it, who cares if music’s not a practical career?'” Her theory is that this period — when there was little else to do besides start a band — is behind the much-discussed boom in Ireland’s music scene, best known by its artsy post-punks like Girl Band and Fontaines D.C., who were recently nominated for a Grammy. Connolly is cautious about romanticizing the recession — “It’s not like as soon as you get on the dole people just feel creative” — but agrees that something was gestating in Ireland that’s recently been set free. On coming up as a part of the Irish rock renaissance: “It’s more exciting than anything. It shows us what’s possible,” Connolly says, “Hey, we don’t sound like Fontaines, but maybe people will get used to that twang. Maybe they’ll be like, ‘Ooh, I want to hear more of that weird Irish singing.'”

For Connolly, the era didn’t translate into freedom. It took many evenings of Corcoran banging on her door before she relented to try writing a song together. One of their first attempts became “Rats,” off the band’s 2016 EP Calm Girls. The first thing you’ll notice about Pillow Queens is that they’re astonishingly catchy. “If I’m not a rat/ You’re not a rat/ I won’t say nothin’ if you touch me like that,” Connolly mischievously calls (pronounced “rah” and “nuttin” in her thick accent) over thick blasts of guitar and kickdrum on the singalong-ready chorus, a key feature of many Pillow Queens songs. No one in the band will tell me what the vermin-themed line means. (I assumed it was about a secret hook-up, though the music video portrays a mock children’s TV show where hosts share lessons on ACAB and not being a scab). But with their boundless enthusiasm and hooky emo-inspired riffs, Pillow Queens could get a packed bar to scream just about anything back at them”.

One cannot talk about Pillow Queens without discussing queerness. As a Queer band, they are inspiring so many others. There are more Queer artists on the scene compared to a few years back, though I think there is still not as much acceptance and as many open doors as there should be. Attitudes are changing, yet things are not perfect. In their interview with The Line of Best Fit, the group talked about queerness being at the heart of their core. It must have been tough to live in a Catholic country as Queer women:

“It was also the intention that the band would consist of four queer women. Queerness is in the very DNA of Pillow Queens; their foundation built on being visible as queer artists, with In Waiting featuring song titles such as “Gay Girls” and “Handsome Wife”. “That was something that was important to us,” says Corcoran. “I’ve been in bands before where we were approached by a queer publication, and the other members of the band were like: ‘We don’t want it to be a gimmick, we don’t want to make that a thing’. And it’s like, okay, it’s not gimmicky, it’s just a big part of my identity that I don’t wanna be hiding. I don’t wanna feel like we wouldn’t do any queer press. With Pillow Queens it’s the total opposite to that.”

“[We would] welcome it. We don’t get enough,” Connolly laughs, before quipping, “I don’t think people know that we’re gay.”

“This is our coming out article,” Corcoran replies, tongue in cheek.

Following two previous EPs, In Waiting was born from a more collaborative writing process than ever before. “Everybody feels like their stamp is on the album,” Corcoran notes, and it’s as sure-footed as the band has ever been. Lyrically, much of the album deals with watching their beloved Dublin fall victim to gentrification, and concerns around financial and living circumstances grow ever more pressing.

PHOTO CREDIT: Vanessa Ifediora

Yet Ireland’s influence on the album spreads its roots deeper even than that. Catholic imagery crops up throughout; something they found almost worked its way into to their lyricism unnoticed, merely a language picked up after growing up in a country where it’s so unavoidable.

“None of us really grew up in a strictly religious household,” Connolly says. “But we got a hangover of a very strictly religious country. And we had to grow up as four queer women in a country that didn’t necessarily see us as whole people.”

The conflation of religious language with perspectives that are intrinsically and uniquely queer results in a viewpoint that almost feels like a reclamation; a way of facing and re-sculpting this element of spirituality from which both Connolly and Corcoran felt ripped away. “When I was quite young, I was incredibly spiritual,” says Corcoran, “and there were a lot of incidents—including me coming to terms with my sexuality and realising that that wasn’t accepted—that were really disappointing. I was like, okay, I can’t coexist harmoniously”

As if in answer to those years of grief and shame, In Waiting feels like a celebration of queerness; of queer love, queer joy and queer identity. “Handsome Wife” is a beaming reflection on the glee of being in love (‘The silence is so soft / I’m gonna be free’), while "A Dog’s Life" sees them take pride in identity and community despite the coldness and inequity of the society around them; all of this viewed through a prism of queerness that is recognisable almost innately to those who share in it.

“There’s so much emphasis on negatives, and homophobia and hate, and that’s not what being queer is. There’s so much joy in it,” Corcoran says. “I found myself through queer art and queer performance, and finding that community”.

There is a little bit more I want to explore before coming to the song review. I am using the Stereogum interview again. The group’s blend of religious imagery as Queer artists is not a common clash. Because of that, they are often misunderstood as social warriors or being overly-political:

“I guess it’s a bit of ‘Hey, we’re four queer women using religious references to write songs about fancying girls,'” Connolly says, explaining the band is often interpreted to be making confrontational statements they don’t intend. “But some of it is just quite beautiful. We’re not only referencing religion to reject it. Catholicism was something that certainly affected myself, Sarah, and Cathy a lot when it came to accepting our queerness. It’s nice to be able not to look back so disdainfully and say, ‘I’m going to look back without angst and use these metaphors.”

Pillow Queens are easily misread as social justice punks because all the members are queer and happy to talk about it, as opposed to artists who set firm boundaries to avoid having their identities treated as a trend. Make no mistake, the band’s name is queer slang for someone who likes to get more than they give in bed. They mention the Irish anti-immigrant policy “Direct Provision” in every interview, and little girls don dirty communion dresses in their music videos. But when it comes to the music, they aren’t slogan-shouters, even to the extent of something like Camp Cope’s “The Opener” or Diet Cig’s “Tummy Ache.” Their song “Gay Girls” has been dubbed a “celebration of queer identity” as a result of the title and a few words in the chorus. But “Gay Girls” is really just about “a normal person having anxiety about someone they’re interested in,” Connolly says. The band gets closest to riot grrl rock when Corcoran’s writes, like on “HowDoILook,” a sardonic body-angst manifesto, and “A Dog’s Life,” which is about Dublin’s housing crisis. Part of the fun of Pillow Queens is hearing the band scream-chant, “I! Won’t! Worry! Bout! The! Gay! Girls!” But those moments feel richer and more authentic for all the subtle ones, like on “Holy Show,” when Connolly sings, “I’ve got your eyes and cheeks in front of me/ Filling the space between my thighs.” “We love watching what people like girl in red are doing, because it’s just a different world. We grew up on the edge, where it was still a political statement to sing about ‘she’ and ‘her,'” Corcoran says. “Artists like her don’t even think about whether or not to do it”.

I have touched on how a lot of EIRE’s new wave of music is led by men. I wonder whether if there is a culture in the Irish media of promoting male artists ahead of womxn and other genders. Despite the fact there are not too many (in comparison) womxn in bands from Dublin, Pillow Queens have not faced a lot of sexism. In that interview with YUCK, they said they have witnessed a few digs – though not as bad as many other womxn in the industry:

“What is it like being a woman/womxn in such a male-dominated space?

It’s one of those things where we do get asked that question a lot, or we certainly did when we were starting out, ‘Oh have you experienced any sexism in the music scene?’ and we were very lucky to be like, ‘you know what, we really haven’t’ and I think that’s because when people are asking about sexism you immediately think someone’s saying something to you. We did get that like ‘oh I’m surprised that those are girls and you sound so big and stuff like that’. But as we went on and we got deeper into the structural element of being a musician and getting marginally more successful, it’s not the little quips that you hear on a venue, it’s actually the structural stuff that you only notice once you’ve gotten to that point”.

Before interpreting Be By Your Side, CLASH produced an article announcing the date of their upcoming album. Pillow Queens talked about the inspiration behind Be By Your Side:

“Pillow Queens will release new album 'Leave The Light On' later this year.

The new album will be released on April 1st, and it will be accompanied by a full-on SXSW assault and their biggest ever UK tour.

The Dublin band share the news alongside a fresh single, with 'Be By Your Side' online now.

The cute video features Pillow Queens playing at a party, while love and friendship are enacted on the dancefloor.

Musically one of their most direct moments, Pillow Queens use the lyrics as a means to explore vulnerability.

"This song is about the mechanisms that are used to hide your vulnerabilities and carry on," explains singer / bassist Pamela Connolly. "But also, the feeling of being about to burst and how cathartic it could be to allow yourself to let your emotions out and feel the world around you. This was one of the first songs we finished on the album as it was the quickest to become fully realised by all of us”.

The video is one of Pillow Queens’ best. Directed by Kate Dolan, and featuring Pillow Queens, Jeanne Nicole Ni Ainle, Jordanne Jones, Ben Hackett, Evanne Kilgallon, Molly Cantwell, James Stewart, Nelle Russell, Donna McElligott, James Shannon, Georgia Coulter and Alessandra Diaz, it is a wonderful clip!

Starting with the band playing on a stage and the actresses featuring in the video brushing their teeth and applying make-up, the colours and tone of the video instantly grabs you. The vocal is deeper and focused. Conveying passion with a more composed nature, the lyrics truly rise to the top and get under the skin: “Be by your side, I want to be/Although the times I lied, I cannot read/There's nothing left to show you now to my heart/When everyone around me grows, I just fall apart/Be by your side, I want to be/Haven't got the time to cry though I'm so free/It takes a little time to find when it's so dark/Another little gun to blow, life's supposed to start”. Brooding, cool, sensual and teasing, the band keep things quite light and melodic to start. You do anticipate there will be an explosion or rush, though there is an intensity in the vocal that is there under the surface. I have talked about Pillow Queens keeping their accent in the music. This is true of Be By Your Side. There is a buzz and rumble in the chorus. I love the opening lines of it: “Yeah, I wanna feel/Blood rushing straight to my head/And I wanna feel/Like a dog with no bone to be lead”. I love the actresses and extras in the video. In terms of tone, I get a slight suggestion of the Netflix series, Sex Education. It seems like it is quite modern but, as the series does, the fashion and a lot of the visual aspects are set in the 1970s and 1980s. It looks like it was a blast filming the video! The band are always so tight and connected. I love the composition and how it is both busy and sparse. The sound does not feel too crowded or layered, and yet there are so many elements working together. With a terrific lead vocal and bass, guitar and percussion entwined and driving the song forward, the band are at their finest here!

PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Dolan

Although the song is five minutes, Be By Your Side sounds like this proper epic. It will stay with you long after you have heard it. In the pre-chorus, the band combine and blend their vocals beautifully. Moving through stages like chapters in a book, the video remains spellbinding! The actresses appear to be tripping as they are sat down eating. Although the images do not necessarily sync with what one would imagine the song is about, this is part of the beauty. Every listener will have their own video concept in their head. I love the direction Kate Dolan took. The second verse inspires images and stirring scenes: “Be by your side, I want to be/Watching another night of flying away from me/We laugh about the ups and downs like they don't hurt/Softenin' the edge so I slip right through the dirt/Be by your side, I want to be/Haven't got the heart to keep up with the beat/Rush to start, I was mistaken/Fool me into thinking I had the chance to run”. Contrasting the impassioned and stirring vocals with the humours and trippy video, you get so many emotions and feelings bubbling to the surface. The incredible lead vocal meshes with the soothing harmonies. I think that the pre-chorus, “All of the time, all of the time, all of the time”, is one of the most purely simple and beautiful sounds and parts of the song. Be By Your Side is a tantalising glimpse of Leave the Light On. It is going to be a stunning follow-up to In Waiting. A terrific band who always produce sensational music, make sure that you keep a watch of the brilliant Pillow Queens!

If you can catch Pillow Queens live, then make sure you do! It has been years since I saw them in London, so I am eager to do it again. There is a lot of excitement around the upcoming second album, Leave the Light On:

“All right then, let me try to rephrase. When I was alive, I aimed to be a student not of longing but of light.” – Maggie Nelson, Bluets

When Pillow Queens set about recording their second album, before, after and during, great spaces were opening. The pauses in living and connection were profound. And so, they went two places: within, and towards each other.

Leave the Light On is an exploration of the uncertainty of emotions as they are in process, and an intuitive outpouring of ideas as they form. It’s about being intimately honest with yourself, and as a band. It’s about trusting that this state of vulnerability can be held as it emerges, by you, by us.

What do queer dream blues sound like? More importantly, what do they feel like? Leaving home at night, driving through the black back roads until the tungsten light starts to glow. “Uaigneas an chaldaigh”, the Irish sense of loneliness experienced on the shore. The confusion and discombobulation of waking and feeling unfamiliar. The liminal space between dreaming and being conscious. The unmooring that happens when a sense of self is being explored and sometimes slipping away.

But gravitating towards the unknown and the ambiguous can often yield the kinds of sounds and feelings that provide creative certainty, where the art is coming to you, as much as you going to it. Leave the Light On fills vast new sonic plains for Pillow Queens. It’s an album that encourages duality; to be soft and hard, delicate, and muscular, intimate and anthemic, alone and together. Collaborating on lyrics, a shared emotional experience fills these songs of hope and home, insecurity and estrangement, songs that track time passing and a sense of reflection grows deeper every day.

When real movement is stillness, when to be stationary feels transitionary, and when the most vital journey in life is to go within, then it’s time to leave the light on, and open up”.

One of the best bands in the world right now, Pillow Queens are going to get better and better. I am looking forward to seeing what they offer on their second studio album. Now that things are opening up, they will get to showcase their album live this time around. That will be a relief! Such an incredible group, I think they will be legends and icons…