There is something deliberately exhausting about ‘Pick Your Poison’. The latest single from HAVVK‘s fourth album, Time Will Kill, moves at the pace of someone who has run out of energy, slow and fuzz-shrouded, sounding as though there is nothing left to give.
The Dublin duo do not offer solutions to the polarisation of online discourse; instead, they capture what it feels like to exist inside that noise. Their dense, hazy guitar sound draws on melodic grunge and heavier shoegaze textures, balancing buried pop melodies with a lingering sense of fatigue. At times, the track recalls the more introspective side of Wolf Alice, while echoes of The Joy Formidable can be heard in the way HAVVK balance melody and weight.
“It feels to me that a lot of social media is full of debate on complex issues but doesn’t provide any kind of platform for measured or informative discussion. This song tries to sum up being in that environment and not knowing how to respond in that noise.” Matt Harris (guitarist).
Julie Hough sings as though she has had this conversation far too many times before. “The coast is clear and bright / But there’s something hiding in the grass”: that contrast between tranquillity and unease runs throughout the track. The chorus arrives like a question with no clear addressee and the song never really tries to answer it. “Who’s wrong and who’s right here? / Is it keeping you up all night, dear?”
Time Will Kill is set for release on 19 June via VETA Records.
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