We’re not sure this really means much of anything, but The Murder Capital will always be the last band we saw and covered live before the pandemic came and wiped away our before-times lives, playing ONCE in Somerville back in March 2020 just before everything shit the bed. So the Irish post-punk band will always be a significant force in memories and playlists from those days, which both feel like yesterday and a hundred thousand years ago.
This week, 32 ghostly months later, The Murder Capital return with the plaintive and uneasy “Ethel,” a moody, meandering song with a contemplative nature that connects that era to this one, wondering aloud if past desires and priorities are still worth carrying on, or if they should be left behind. Like the pair of spectral singles that came before it, “Ethel” sets another dark tone for their forthcoming sophomore album Gigi’s Recovery.
“The song ‘Ethel’ is a picture of a crossroads, really, asking you what you want from life,” the band declares. “Whether you want to continue down a path of chaos, or make a change in your course. It’s showing you what is possible when you make the decisions that bring a sort of cradled warmth into your future. The idea of ‘Ethel’ is that you can have what you truly desire if you put to rest those short-lived fixes that never bring you any real happiness.”
Gigi’s Recovery, produced by John Congleton, is set for January 20 release via Human Sensation Records. It’s the follow-up to 2019 debut record When I Have Fears, and oh so much has changed since then. Or not.