Laura Stevenson’s music has always dealt in crushing existential dread, be it self-deprecation or heartache. This is an artist who once opened a 2015 song called “Jellyfish” with “I'm fucking hideous and spiteful / When I'm left to my devices.” Even the press release for her new album opens with: “If gravity is strong enough, at the end of time our universe will collapse, pulling all of existence back down to infinitesimal size, like before the Big Bang. But if expansion outpaces gravity, eventually the universe will be cold and empty--all light, heat, and connection will be gone.” That phenomenon of a too cold, uninhabitable universe is called The Big Freeze, which is also the title of Stevenson’s upcoming fifth LP that’s out March 29.On the LP’s first single “Living Room, NY,” Stevenson is nowhere near as bleak as the heady, end-of-time concept the album title suggests. In fact, it’s so warm and accessible it’s no shock she recorded it in her childhood home. Here, she yearningly sings of missing someone with lines as affecting as, “I keep you in my mind all of the time” and “I want to see you stare at ceilings until you fall back asleep.” While song is filled with the inherent melancholy of long-distance relationships, it boasts some of the most compelling harmonies of Stevenson’s career so far and is as cozy as curling up with a loved one during a polar vortex. Listen to the song below and pre-order The Big Freeze here.
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