It’s been nearly five years since beloved Boston psych-folk band Quilt released their most recent studio album, Plaza, and depending on your perspective, it either fells like just yesterday or a whole lot longer than a mere half-decade. But timelines are a funny thing, and they’re at play dancing along the shadows in “Cherry,” the new solo single from Quilt’s Anna Fox Rochinski.
Her new album, also titled Cherry, is due out March 26 via Don Giovanni Records. Rochinski admits in a Facebook post that she “spent a really long time making this record,” but from the first few listens of “Cherry,” the effort seems to be worth all the trouble. The track is a captivating twirl of retro-modern guitar-pop, something that someone from the future may assume the late-’70s sounded like.
In announcing both the track and the album, Rochinski also dropped a list of what helped influence her sound, citing everything from Can and Madonna to Beck’s Midnite Vultures era and Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo; Robyn’s 1995 debut also gets a shout.
“I lost interest in chord-based guitar music and constructed this record mostly from melodies and beats and bass lines, with guitar as an accessory rather than necessary ingredient,” says the Brookline native, who adds: “It’s the most personal stuff I’ve ever written. It’s basically a breakup album, but one that documents a time period ranging from the last few dying months of a six-year relationship and straight into the period following, when I was truly on my own for the first time in a very long time. A breakup not just with a guy, but with an entire place and an entire life.”
Five years, six years, all the years. In 2021, timelines only carry whatever meaning one wants to give them. In the end, we’re glad for the here and now, and as she did all those years with Quilt, Rochinski has once again given us something wonderful to help pass the time.
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