Song of the Day: Quilt - Eliot St.

Song of the Day
12/16/2015
Janice Headley
photo by Daniel Dorsa

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is “Eliot St.” by Quilt, from the 2016 album Plaza out February 26th on Mexican Summer.

Quilt - Eliot St. (MP3)

Boston-based psych-pop band Quilt will keep you warm this winter with their third full-length, Plaza. Just like the style of blanket they took their name from, the new album was patched together from scraps and pieces recorded here and there during their 2014 North American tour.

Today's Song of the Day shows the band's dreamier side. Frontman Shane Butler told NPR Music the song was inspired by walks along that very street in Cambridge, talking to his Mom on the phone. "The first part of the song was written over a period of time in which I found myself isolated from the city I had lived in for years, entered an emotionally rocky relationship which slowly disintegrated, and experienced my mother's death," he elaborates. "The choruses hover around the pain felt in moments of unknowing, feeling adrift and always 'one-step-away-from' the person or thing we wish to be close to. The bridge of the song serves as a devil's advocate of sorts; a wake-up call in the midst of despair. And the song's coda takes strength from the intention of the bridge to suggest a renewal, a 'second-wind', for a love once-lost."

Each piece is interwoven perfectly with the next, sewn tight with a gorgeous string accompaniment, arranged by Simon Hanes, and the '60s-style harmonious sighs of co-vocalist Anna Fox Rochinski. If this lovely track is any indication of the rest of the album, we can't wait to walk around with Plaza when it's released in February.

No tour dates yet, but you can follow the band on Twitter and Facebook to be among the first to know. While we wait, watch the band perform for KEXP back in 2014 below:

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