the last time cardinal spins uploaded something to bandcamp was in september 2016, ah, more innocent times*. but the band have been hinting on social media that new material was on the way, and this morning, they may good on those promises with “rent and resolve”, the first single from an upcoming ep. we don’t know anything about the ep yet, other than ostensibly (1) “rent and resolve” will be on it and (2) the lineup is jeff schmidt (guitar/vox), misa giroux (bass), and niall reynolds (drums). you can find the song on their bandcamp or spotify pages.
“rent and resolve” is a jangle-pop song, where the sweet melody covers up some of the sadder, darker content of schmidt’s lyrics. a favorite in the second verse: “she has a tattoo on her arm / it simply says show a little spark / i suppose that means you like things on fire / so let’s not turn them into ash.” the song is a mature, frustratedly romantic view of getting older, letting relationships go, and reflecting on life. like the mostly-eaten pie for the single’s artwork, something beautiful has been reduced to a lone slice of pie, probably not fresh, definitely not warm, and the surrounding crumbs only remind you of what you used to have.
*i was going to make some snide, pithy political statement here, but every time i tried to write something funny, it just made me mad that we have a white supremacist criminal as president now.
