Despite the understandable caution around their moniker, pet deaths would like to take us on a journey — but we don’t have to move physically to join along or follow in step. The spiritual compass arrives today (February 1) with “all the things you said you were (i don’t believe in ghosts)”, the latest from the London duo that centers around life and loss over its spacious seven minutes of celestial folk-inflected art-rock.
This new one, complete with a tidier but less impactful 3:40 edit, follows pet deaths’ 2019 debut album To the Top of the Hill and Roll…, with more new music on the way via a sophomore album. “all the things you said you were (i don’t believe in ghosts)” serves as a snapshot of what is to come.
Singer Liam Karima, joined here by Graeme Martin to round out the project’s creative vision, affirms the track is “a message to the afterlife,” adding: “It’s a letter to a lost soul, to a loved one. Loss plays a big part in everyone’s life and when we go through this motion it evokes a dream like state mantra. The words were written on a reflective walk in Dalston along a small river, where ducks procreate and kids sell drugs. I thought about Virginia Woolf, I thought about my friend, I thought about Caroline Flack I thought about Sylvia Plath. It’s a celebration of all the things we had and lost. The letter I sent, still waiting for a reply.”
Hold your loved ones close, and travel along below.