– THE QUIET RIOT –

Mutual Benefit’s Shedding Skin is everything you would hope it would be.

As you might imagine from the title, it’s a track that is all about moving on and getting over, delivered in the sort of wistful hazey, rambling style you associate with artists like Josh Rouse, Cass McCombs or even – dare we speak his name – Ryan Adams.

There’s a beautiful lightness of touch when it comes to the arrangement that’s accentuated with evocative musical flourishes; not least of all the descending piano / guitar line that feels, quite literally, like a casting off of old clothing, garment by hoary garment.

But perhaps the hidden gem within the track is its use of pastoral imagery. For example,

“Diamond scales upon a rotted log
Cicadas singing from a mountaintop
Blossoms growing on a dogwood tree
Leave behind what you used to be”

As the Ohio native (whose real name is Jordan Lee), himself, explains:

“With Shedding Skin, I kept thinking about a town where I saw hundreds of these translucent cicada bodies from where they had clung to a tree, hardened, and then burst out of their own shell. This ghostly sight made me pay more attention to how things naturally regenerate, how loss is part of the fuel of growth. It became a powerful reminder that things shouldn’t stay the same, including parts of ourselves.” Amen to that.

The track comes from the album Thunder Follows The Light which is out now.

MORE FROM THIS WEEK’S MIX:

SINKANE | LITTLE SIMZ | SWEET JOSEPH | SQUID | MUTUAL BENEFIT

You can find all of the tracks reviewed above in the 45 Revolutions per Minute playlist below or click to access the 45 RPM Playlist on Spotify itself.

If you like what you hear (or even if you don’t), please engage in dialogue with me @45rpm_Reviews on Twitter. And, if you’d like to receive updates weekly, please subscribe to the email list to get these recommendations sent to your inbox weekly.

– SV –