Despite what that rodent meteorologist may say, longer and warmer days seem to feel more like a distant promise than a forthcoming guarantee. Houston trio Khruangbin made the wait for spring a bit easier yesterday (February 20) with their latest single, “May Ninth.” Released via Dead Oceans, it’s the second anticipatory single off of their upcoming April 5 album, A LA SALA.
Featuring cascading guitar lines and gentle percussion, “May Ninth” follows in Khruangbin’s classic easy-on-the-ears jam sound, a slightly chiller companion track to previous single “A Love International.” While the band are known for their collaborative style, working in the past with the likes of Leon Bridges and Mali’s Vieux Farka Touré, Khruangbin let their solo work shine in the lead-up to A LA SALA. The sparseness of the instrumentation adds a light, airy feel to “May Ninth” that perfectly encapsulates the hopeful peace that comes with late spring.
Khruangbin’s Laura Lee Ochoa says this of the album title, A LA SALA, which translates to “To The Room” in Spanish: “I used to scream it around my house when I was a little girl, to get everybody in the living room; to get my family together. That’s kind of what recording the new album felt like. Emotionally there was a desire to get back to square-one between the three of us, to where we came from — in sonics and in feeling. Let’s get back there.”
Just a few weeks after the actual May 9, Khruangbin are slated to hit the stage at Boston Calling over Memorial Day weekend with 12 brand-new tracks under their collective belt. In the meantime, pop on some shades and daydream of what spring could be.
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