Back in 2016, there was no telling how popular a band like Horse Jumper of Love would get, or how canonized a record like Salvia Palth’s Melanchole would become. Yet with bedroom-pop going mainstream, Tom Christie couldn’t have found a better moment to revive his Fraternal Twin outfit, whose Homeworlding LP from 2016 marked their last release. A string of singles has recently preceded the band’s upcoming LP Halo Hell Forever, with the latest cut “Medicine” surely proving familiar to anyone who’s caught one of Fraternal Twin’s shows lately. The rousing set-ender lands midway through the new record, slowly evolving from melancholic slacker-rock to a nearly doom-gazing instrumental peak after five minutes.
“‘Medicine’ is this special song that led me back to myself during a years-long depression,” Christie shares of the track’s personal importance, clarifying that the return of Fraternal Twin doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the way trends have changed over the past 10 years. “I wrote it some months before I moved to New York City three years ago and it really opened the floodgates for a lot of new material that I’m excited about. After a long dry spell, I was back to making music that I really identified with. We finish every show with it because of the long instrumental outro that builds and builds and then explodes—it gets really loud. It might be my favorite song I’ve ever written. Mariah [Houston], our guitarist, recently called it our Odyssey. I guess we should check out that movie.”
You should! And speaking of epics, check out the VHS-quality video for “Medicine” below, shot by Nara’s Room band leader Nara Avakian. You can also pre-order Halo Hell Forever ahead of its September 4 release here.
