Sydney-based trio Middle Kids have released ‘Highlands,’ a whirling and energised account of yearning for escapism. Drawing from Scottish imagery and the heritage of frontwoman Hannah Joy, the song contrasts familiarity with adventure and the mundane with utopian desires.
This is notable in lyrics such as:
‘Wherever you are, we’re just getting started/ Out of the dark, into the highlands’ and ‘I don’t like the winter I just like the sound/ Of the sticks always falling, breaking my heart/ And by the way, the air is like ice/ But I’m seeing it clearly in this new light/ I don’t like running I just like the sound/ Of the movement and footsteps hitting the ground.’
“Since I was young, I’ve had this yearning to be free. In this song I used an image of the ‘highlands’ as a euphoric place where I have the space to be me, and you have the space to be you,” says Hannah Joy. “Part of the imagery comes from my Scottish heritage, which my grandmother was always so proud of.”
The accompanying video plays with this too, a car zooming with the pace of the song and the members letting loose with their instruments in a vast countryside space. As Joy goes on to explain, “There are these two energies fighting it out – the constricted energy of the domestic space and the wide open energy of the highlands. We have a friend who calls this kind of music ‘yearncore’. It’s that impatient energy that says, ‘I can’t keep waiting, I need a change.”
“Highlands” follows ‘Bootleg Firecracker’ released in May and is the start of a new chapter for the group. Their previous albums, Lost Friends and Today We’re The Greatest, both received critically acclaimed success.
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