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Music

Hudson Scott's "Panning For Gold" Is a Perfect Metaphor for Modern Day Dating

If you like Tears for Fears and the production wizardry of Rodaidh McDonald (The xx) you will swoon to this new kid.

"Truth be told, I like to fall in love, I'm panning for gold," sings Hudson Scott.

Couple things: yes—don't we all like to fall in love. I'd go so far as to say humanity loves to fall in love.

Secondly, holy shit, Hudson Scott's really hit it on the head: finding someone to fall in love with is like panning for gold: you gotta sift through a lot of rocks till you get to find a diamond, or a gold nugget, or whatever metaphor you wanna go with. If you live in NYC you have to comb through a small quarry! Good luck out there!

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Here's the skinny on Scott: he spent a fair bit of time playing brass for Brit band Foals, UK tastemaker DJ and all around queen Annie Mac has been championing him for a minute. He's dropped a bunch of songs in the form of an EP earlier this year (listen to them here), that meld a Tears for Fears / Prefab Sprout pop sensibility with swish modern production. For his first single proper—premiering below—he roped in XL production maestro Rodaidh McDonald (Låpsley, King Krule, The xx), and the results are quite devastating. That bass line, for instance, conjures up dimly lit alleys, flickering streetlights, and billowing trench coats. Accessorize further with a furrowed brow, because love isn't rainbows and Colgate ad smiles.

'''Panning For Gold' is about looking for love, sensing that it's about to arrive and then doing your best not to trip yourself over," he explains. "It's about that initial excitement when you first meet someone great, when you'll do whatever, put yourself out all the time, just to hang out. I don't want to sound like a doe-eyed sadsack, but it is what it is.

"I worked on it over a long time with my mate/hero Duncan Tootill of Little Cub who helped develop my obsession with chorus pedals. Somewhere in the middle I spent a few days with XL maestro Rodaidh McDonald, who let me in on some of the top dog's secrets.''

Listen below and then listen again.