Photo credit: Julia Khorosilov
Hop Along’s Frances Quinlan has shared ‘Now That I’m Back’, the second single to be taken from her upcoming debut solo album, ‘Likewise’ (out on 31 January via Saddle Creek).
An intimate song about the power and ever-changing and evolving nature of love, it opens with slow, stirring guitar before Frances starts pouring her heart out about a meeting with a woman, spaghetti and finding yourself lost: ‘I came in and she had on that white uniform, I had my first coffee with her that morning’. Frances goes on to talk about cherished memories and pleads ‘we should try again to talk’ as the song veers into a more abstract pop sound that is equal parts Dutch Uncles, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and Deerhunter.
Regarding ‘Now That I’m Back’, Frances said: ‘I find it mystifying that my idea of love has aged and changed right alongside me. I’d always thought of love as something one is given, I didn’t think much about my own capacity for love, for generosity. That’s too bad, but now I understand a little better, I hope. At this point I think love is always there, it exists in the margins, one needs only to access it (though this occasionally requires some struggle and at times some pain).’