TUNES // skirts – “True”

Post by Tommy

There’s an old school country classic buried, maybe even hidden, somewhere in the center of “True,” a song about a heartbreak road trip through the South that ends up sounding less like the open road and more like a dirt path through tangled woods. It’s a familiar setup but skirts’s songwriting is sensitive, earnest, and confident in carefully diffusing any sense of cliche without compromising the nostalgic roots of the song either. In fact, every classic folk-country bedrock is here – the swaying country waltz, the plunk of a saloon piano, the swells and twists of a steel guitar. But “True” weaves those images and sounds more like a patchwork or a collage around itself rather than indulging the arrangement in neater and more obvious roles. The swing of the rhythm peeks through a tangled bramble of drums; electric and steel guitar slowly overtake one another like vines. It’s a song that’s more like a birds nest than a house – a carefully gathered collection of sounds tangled like a lattice around it. It’s organized just enough to be deliberate but carefully refuses to untangle itself too far. 

“True” is the second single off skirts’s upcoming LP Great Big Wild Oak, due out July 30th via Double Double Whammy.