It was April of 2020 when Kristin Slipp and Cole Kamen-Green unveiled their debut EP as mmeadows—a moment when, as I’m sure you may remember, plenty of other things were going on in the world—with Who Do You Think You Are? demonstrating Slipp’s vocal chops worthy of a spot in the current Dirty Projectors lineup and Kamen-Green’s cutting-edge pop production, which has landed him in collaborative projects with everyone from Harry Styles to Laurie Anderson. With a release date yet to be announced for a debut record, the duo are returning with another new track called “Baby-By,” which follows up their mid-summer epic “Light Moves Around You” with the ebbs and flows of a sleepless night.
“A few years ago I was battling crippling insomnia, which brought me to some intensely dark places,” Slipp shares of the song’s origins. “Though it’s mostly abated, I still struggle to get to sleep sometimes. On one of those nights not long ago, I decided to channel the electric current coursing through me into a song. By daylight I’d written the bones of a danceable lullaby, whose form mirrored my own experience of falling asleep—the verses lull you into a state of melancholy near-sleep, then ramp up into an energetic burst of energy, the chorus, and this cycle repeats till the last gasp of the outro, like the sun coming over the horizon, when it’s finally safe to close your eyes.”
The track opens with the eerie, familiar sounds of distant cicadas before Slipp’s vocals enter, nearly at a whisper. A minute in, though, as promised, things pick up and the instrumental demonstrates a more danceable sequel to their previous single.
Check out the lyric video for the track below, and expect a full LP from the group some time next year.
