FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Music

bed.'s New Track "Replay" Lets Out Their Romantic Frustrations

Ever hit a wall in a relationship? Cool, get ready to relate a little too hard to this Portland, Oregon band.
Lauren O'Neill
London, GB
Image by Jeremy Hernandez via PR

All of the best music is about relationships, isn't it really? And even when relationships feel like they're going south, the music which comes out of that is often incredibly special (hi, Rumours), brimming with feelings and honesty, and a sense of emotional investment that's just not present when the stakes are lower.

That's one of the reasons why "Replay," the new single from Portland, Oregon 'slo-fi' merchants bed. – formed of husband and wife Alex and Sierra Haager – slaps quite so hard: as a couple, they went through a shitty patch, and as a band, they mined it for gold. Written in the second year of their marriage, this bold new song (which we're premiering below) hints at unrest both musically and lyrically, making a heavier departure from their slightly more mellow 2016 EP klickitat.

Advertisement

Sierra says that she used the track to get at some of the frustrations she was feeling at the time:

We were living in Eugene, Oregon (can’t recommend it) in a duplex where we shared a bedroom wall with our landlord (can’t recommend it), so we would have these brutal silent fights for hours on end – sometimes via text. It sounds funny now, but at the time we would just tear each other apart. It sucked.

Just as we were getting to the end of our collective rope, and maybe because we were worn out from months of fighting, we started having moments of clarity where we could hear and understand each other. It wasn’t perfect, but we slowly started to make space for each other and to understand how different our basic assumptions about life and relationships were.

It's a sad but relatable place to find yourself in, which, one way or another, hints at a need for change. And for bed. as a project, too, "Replay" represents progression, following on from another new track, "Fine," which came at the end of 2017. The band's melodies and tonally distinctive guitar have a new fire under them here, perhaps down to crisp production from Larry Crane (whose credits include Sleater-Kinney and Elliott Smith), who took the reins on their as-yet-unnamed upcoming album. This invigoration looks great on them, and "Replay" feels like all of their best elements – the clarity in Sierra's vocal, those jagged-edged guitars – coming together in a catchy, new way, the singing throatier, the guitars burlier. Listen above, and, if you've ever had to work at a relationship, feel seen.

Follow Noisey on Twitter.