Although she’s been busy lately contributing keys and backing vocals for Sea Lemon on their recent tour with Death Cab for Cutie, songwriter Meredith Lampe has been gaining traction with her own musical outlet, Work Wife, over the past few years. Off the strength of a pair of EPs she’s been invited to open for Anthony Green, Husbands, and Christian Lee Hutson, and now Work Wife—expanded into a full band—is announcing that their debut full-length Parade will drop at the end of October courtesy of Born Losers Records.
Given the vast exposure she’s experienced recently as a performer, it’s only logical that the new record’s central theme, as its title suggests, revolves around Lampe’s conflicting feelings about being perceived—on stage, in a conversation, and beyond. “Parade centers on the act of being seen and the energy exchange that occurs between the viewer and the subject,” she explains. “I wanted to use this record to explore the highs and lows of that feeling, along with the ache that comes with someone seeing something in you that you didn’t know was there.”
Lead single “Big Parking Lot” is the first treatise on this subject to be shared from the LP, and it also serves as the band’s “anthem of big feelings,” according to Lampe. “The song narrates a fictional romantic fantasy to explore that tension, and mixes it with a real memory from high school,” she explains. “It seemed at that time that we were competing to be the funniest, the clowniest, the most carefree—the ‘fun girl.’ She never has trouble winning someone over. She isn’t concerned with appearances, but manages to magically keep hers up. She lets her feelings sweep her up into action but charms her way out of trouble. She’s not real, and shouldn’t serve as a role model, but sure makes for a good protagonist in a passing guilty thought.”
The track’s banjo-heavy, rural-indie feel and big choruses come paired with a music video that explores the ideas of hiding and perception in clever ways—check it out below, and pre-order Parade ahead of its October 30 release here.
