Nine years removed from her last LP, songwriter Rachael Yamagata recently resurfaced with a new single along with the reveal of Tightrope Walker’s follow-up, titled Starlit Alchemy. Dropping next month, the new project serves as a distillation of this lengthy interim period as Yamagata slowly shed the shackles of the music industry only to come out the other end fully independent and in control of her artistic voice. “Birds” was a promising look at this new chapter, though the newly unveiled single “Backwards” feels a bit more on-the-nose when it comes to Yamagata’s headspace during the making of the record.
“‘Backwards’ is the ache of splitting paths when you know you’ve begun a new journey and are too far on it now to turn around and wait for anyone else to catch up,” she shares of the cathartic track, another champer-pop cut spotlighting piano and Yamagata’s sultry vocals before orchestral flourishes begin to seep in. “It is the bittersweet excitement for what is to come and the realization of what must be left behind.”
Check it out below, or listen here.
