Tomorrow, Brooklyn-based songwriter Elijah Wolf is releasing a new album called Forgiving Season which chronicles the period of creative drought that followed his 2021 LP Brighter Lighting and the tour that followed. As is evident in the new album’s title, it’s a record of learning to forgive oneself, while the collaborative aspects—including production from Apollo Sunshine’s Sam Cohen and instrumental contributions from Angel Olsen collaborator Josh Jaeger—hint at the therapeutic effect of recording with friends once the painful writing process had come to an end.
Before the record drops, Wolf is sharing one last single in the form of the sun-soaked folk-rock jam “Sun Batter,” which turns Wolf’s troubled internal monologue into a touching anthem of overcoming self-doubt. “I wrote ‘Sun Batter’ after I got back from the Brighter Lighting tour and was having a hard time figuring out where to go or what to do next,” he recalls. “I found myself digging my way to a place of intense self-critique. I imagined a superhero who could destroy negative thoughts and overcome doubt. I wrote this song as advice to myself not to overthink and to enjoy the good around as well.”
As for the lush instrumental, Wolf attributes the classic first-thought-best-thought approach to its recording—albeit after additional thoughts were intensively explored. “We tried this song a bunch of different ways in the studio, starting with a live version that had Sam on bass, Joshua on drums, and me on guitar,” he explains. “I added piano, then we kept adding and subtracting instruments. There’s a version with heavy guitars, loud synthesizers—you name it, we tried it. Toward the end of recording the album, we came back to the song and realized it felt best mostly as we had recorded it right off the bat.”
Hear the final—or initial—results below.
