Madeline Link releases music as PACKS, and she's preparing to share her sophomore album Crispy Crunchy Nothing, the follow-up to her 2021 debut take the cake, on March 31 via Fire Talk. Today, she shared the unhurried, mournful track "EC."
"Time didn’t slow him," Link sings over waves of acoustic guitar, balanced by the rising tide of electric guitar twang, her steel-heavy voice magnetizing every word. "Now he’s riding the tip of a tidal wave in the ocean / Making snap decisions with seagulls / But look no further for the answer." This track, along with the rest of the album, was written while Link was processing grief caused by the sudden death of a coworker, as well her aunt, who was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Seattle near the start of the pandemic.
"The unexpected death of a coworker I had never met struck me like a brick wall," Link said. "I had been in charge of packing up all of his electronic hardware and shipping it to him just months before. As I found myself preparing shipping labels for his mother to place on the boxes to send back, a lasting sadness set in."
Watch the video for "EC" below, and pre-order Crunchy Crispy Nothing here.
