Although there’s plenty of terrifying and otherwise bizarre imagery to distract the viewer from it, I’ve always understood the primary message of Blue Velvet to be about the horrors of feeling less helpless than a parent for the first time, with all of the film’s unsettling events unfolding as soon as Kyle MacLachlan’s college-aged character leaves the hospital where he visits his newly bedridden father. Most of us spend two decades never really considering anything outside of our immediate reality, which is one of being taken care of by the infallible beings who’ve raised us thus far.
It’s this difficult set of emotions that fueled Afternoon Bike Ride songwriter Lia Kurihara on the band’s latest single arriving ahead of their sophomore album Glossover. But rather than Lynchian horror, “Nothing in Particular” expresses confusion through its woozy lo-fi instrumentals that smear around an anchoring acoustic guitar and electronic drum beat. Meanwhile, the lyrics weigh two conflicting emotions that arise while in the role of caretaker for an ailing parent.
“This song explores mixed-up emotions about caretaking for my dad,” Kurihara shares, “where on the one hand all I want to do is spend time with him and cherish where he’s at and on the other hand it’s challenging my sense of self as someone in my twenties who shouldn’t have to be burdened with this responsibility. There’s an element of guilt for any resentment that I feel which is why the song starts with ‘I’d never want to make you feel I’m haunted by what I have to do to keep you well.’ … I’m in a cycle of frustration and grief, one leading into the other leading into the other.”
Listen to the song below, and anticipate Glossover’s arrival on February 10 via Friends of Friends.
