Everyday we’re inundated with news that tends to make living feel not particularly good in the moment, which was perhaps the impetus for the debut album from Brooklyn’s Hiding Places. Out today via Keeled Scales, The Secret to Good Living is a collection of simmering tunes that feel far too spacious to have been devised within the NYC city limits (the band hails from the Southeast, hence the influence of Wednesday’s serrated take on rollicking Americana), with all 10 tracks existing in a cohesive world of startling optimism dreamed up by the quartet. As co-frontperson Audrey Keelin shares, album opener “Dead Dove (Your Love Was Never a Waste of Time)” is less a eulogy to a friend than a celebration of life. “Written in part during the same writing session as ‘Holy Roller,’” Keelin notes, “this song carries similar energy, and was compositionally completed much later during a band jam, lyrics falling out after the loss of a New York DIY scene community member.”
Alongside the album’s release today, Hiding Places are sharing a video for “Dead Dove” which sees the band performing on a pier. After an eerie, voyeuristic opening sequence that brings Michael Myers’ killer’s-POV effect to mind, the perspective begins to feel like we’re instead seeing through the eyes of a friendly spirit revisiting cherished memories on Earth. “Over a few months of sporadic planning, the band and director Oliver Pippin had built a world in our imaginations to live in while shooting,” Keelin adds. “For this music video, and for much of my general philosophy about music-making, I was inspired by Justine Kurland, namely her photo projects Highway Kind and Girl Pictures. I’m enjoying the concept of imagining the world you want to live in right now.”
Check out the visual below, and listen to The Secret to Good Living in full here.
