Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.
Emily Kinney’s career is multidimensional. As an actress, she’s best known for her roles as Beth Greene on AMC’s The Walking Dead and Nora Everett on Showtime’s Masters of Sex. In addition to balancing her ventures in film and television, she’s also a musician. Her third solo LP, Oh, Jonathan, is out Aug. 24, and the album’s first single, “Drunk and Lost,” is premiering here at Paste. You can listen to the breezy pop tune below.
Are there two more relatable words than “Drunk” and “Lost” to describe the romantic short fallings of one’s 20s? Hardly. On this twinkly track, Kinney offers a personal anecdote that aptly sums up the confusion surrounding any relationship pursuit. The song, which sees Kinney go beyond singer-songwriter fare to explore a poppier landscape, is about her crush Jonathan, who also happens to be the inspiration for the album’s title. Here’s what she had to say about the breathy, radio-ready tune:
“Drunk and Lost” is about wanting a real romantic relationship with someone you see at a party, but settling for less. I give the listener some good excuses so they don’t have to worry about me getting too clingy later. A guy that I was close to for a long time doesn’t drink and we would talk about how when you don’t drink, you have to actually own up to all your decisions as real choices you made, you can’t detach emotionally and blame it on something else anymore. My favorite part of the song is the little breaths (huh, huh, huh, yeah). Ben and I had a lot of fun making this one.
If you watch The Walking Dead, you’re aware most characters don’t make it long. Following her (read: Beth Greene’s) departure from the hugely popular zombie series, Kinney has appeared on shows like Conviction and Ten Days in the Valley, and she’s currently filming Netflix’s forthcoming new project Messiah.
Oh, Jonathan follows 2015’s This Is War and Kinney’s 2014 debut, Expired Love. It’s out Aug. 24, and you can preorder it here.
Back in 2015, we hailed Kinney as the Best of What’s Next. Once you’ve checked out “Drunk and Lost,” watch Kinney’s Paste Studio session from 2016 further down.