Lightning Bug have signed to Fat Possum and announced the release of their third album ‘A Color of the Sky’ on 25 June. To celebrate the news, they have shared new single ‘The Right Thing is Hard to Do’, a song that Audrey Kang says examines her struggles with self-worth and vulnerability and how personal concerns can align with global issues: ‘Here I wanted to connect how the struggles and flaws within the individual are mirrored in the greater problems of society. How do we as individuals know we are on the right path? How do we as a society, as a species, know we are on the right path? So I started with myself, and my own struggles, touching on how I hide myself away from other people, on my stage fright, on my inability to be vulnerable, on this feeling I used to have that I needed to prove I was worthy of being alive. Then I tried to connect these struggles outward to global issues like xenophobia, arbitrary borders, the lines we draw between ourselves and the environment, and the ways we sacrifice the health of the planet for human convenience.’
The beautiful animated video by Melanie Kleid brings Audrey’s feelings to life (‘you’ve got so much to prove’) while the swoonsome, at times almost ambient dream-pop melodies combine with the a sparse intensity that exists in the space between The Antlers and Big Thief. Audrey also touches upon the bigger picture and the rise of nationalism/the ‘me first’ culture in today’s society: ‘So they say they’ll build a wall of steel that rises grim and tall. And turn away those seeking shelter most of all. Fires burn and the waters rise. As we turn from what we know is right’.
