Pillow Queens have something to teach us. The Dublin-based queer indie rock group have been quietly building a hearty following since their first album, 2020’s In Waiting, and are gearing up for another big year with new single “Like a Lesson,” first shared on Wednesday (March 6).
The band hearkens back to their genre’s golden age with the track, the latest off of their upcoming third LP, Name Your Sorrow, due April 19 via Royal Mountain Records. Somewhere in the midground between previous singles “Gone” and “Suffer,” “Like a Lesson” hits a sweet spot between classic ’90s/ ’00s soft-rock sounds and contemporary revivalists — such as British counterparts The Last Dinner Party and Wet Leg.
Over lightly distorted guitar and steady snare, Pillow Queen vocalist, bassist, and guitarist Pamela Connolly sings of yearning for intimacy, trepidation be damned. Connolly shows a full range of vocal skills in the track, from the near-belt of the hook straight into a head-voice chorus doting over how “It’s the shapes that you make / And your body’s safe.”
The band says that “Like a Lesson” is about “the notion of finding safety and comfort in the presence of love… contrasting with the paralyzing fear of making mistakes or ruining your life or someone else’s. It delves into the feeling of being a lesson for someone, a side character in someone else’s story.”
Pillow Queens are slated for a busy early summer touring the UK and Ireland, including one big date supporting Snow Patrol. If they do make it across the Atlantic, my prediction is that they’re sure to hit the late-summer festival circuit; otherwise, here’s to hoping to catch them stateside before In Waiting hits virality.