Ahead of this Friday’s release of their new album They Get There, Haybaby shared a new single called “Animosity” on Monday.
They Get There is an album inspired by three years of intense hardship for the band, from parental losses to their tour van being set ablaze. There’s one way to internalize this pain and work through it in your art, to make your music abrasive and cacophonous, using noise to represent the chaos you’ve endured.
Or, you could take Haybaby’s route and find the fun in all the pain. “Animosity” is an eminently playful tune, moving effortlessly through its narratives of reckoning personal conflicts with the global. Using a simple bass loop and effortless drum fills, Haybaby relish in the conflict, adding little flourishes here and there that sound like cherry-picking the worst parts of the past few years and turning them into something enjoyable.
On Haybaby’s Bandcamp page, the group describe their music as “honey-ass heartbreak crooning,” a description that baffles until you hear “Animosity.” After cracking a cold one, lead singer Leslie Hong effortlessly captures the self-indulgent mundanity of a failed relationship: “And now you’re sitting by the door / dirty on the floor in your hopeful dress. / I see you’re hollow to your core / so deeply absorbed in your emptiness.” Ouch.
They Get There arrives on June 7 via Tiny Engines. Check out “Animosity” below, and find information on their current tour and prior single “Get Down” here.