Spud Cannon Look on the Bright Side of a Breakup with “Lovely”

It’s the fourth single from the New Yorkers’ forthcoming LP “Good Kids Make Bad Apples.”
Spud Cannon Look on the Bright Side of a Breakup with “Lovely”

It’s the fourth single from the New Yorkers’ forthcoming LP “Good Kids Make Bad Apples.”

Words: Mike LeSuer

photo by Juan C. Quimper

June 03, 2021

The first track from the forthcoming third album from Poughkeepsie rockers Spud Cannon introduced the album as the work of a band that’s somehow barely keeping it together while also sounding tighter than ever. The upbeat—if not uplifting—guitar rock on the track went hand-in-hand with vocalist Ari Bowe’s distressed lyrics disguised under a cheery tone. This dynamic is pretty well replicated for the latest cut from Good Kids Make Bad Apples, which documents a breakup and, ultimately, the positive aspects of the disintegrated relationship through sunshine tones that recall Cults’ groundbreaking debut.

“When I wrote this song, I thought of it as the song I would write if my (then) boyfriend broke up with me,” Bowe shares of the track. “Funnily enough, I completely foreshadowed the end of that relationship—my ex broke up with me barely a month after I wrote ‘Lovely.’ The verses are all about wanting to go back in time, not understanding how to move forward, and the ‘what ifs’ that inevitably run through your head. 

“The chorus came together pretty easily,” she continues. “During the writing process, Meg used the word ‘Lovely’ as a stand-in before we had lyrics, and I ran with it. That word inspired the song, and the bittersweet vibe of the instrumentals pushed me in the direction of a breakup song. But it’s also uplifting in a way: You’re going through a painful process following a breakup, and you feel consumed by the loss you’re feeling, but you know it hurts so badly because of how lovely the good times were.”

Watch the video below, and listen here. Bad Apples arrives June 25 via Good Eye Records.