Bambara Go Southern Gothic on “Sing Me to the Street”

Back in October, Georgia-born and Brooklyn-based post-punk band Bambara announced their forthcoming album, Stray (out Feb. 14, 2020, on Wharf Cat Records). Blistering lead single—and Paste Daily Dose pick—”Serafina” followed two arson-obsessed young women who fall in love and watch the world burn, setting fires wherever they go. Today (Dec. 3), they’re back with “Sing Me to the Street,” another character study off Stray, a Flannery O’Connor-inspired song cycle about a collection of characters living in a bleak Georgia community.

“Sing Me to the Street” is a moody, atmospheric track that sounds out of a bygone era, with Reid Bateh’s Cave- and Cohen-esque grim baritone backed by unexpectedly feathery tones from Palberta’s Ani Ivry-Block and Drew Citron of Public Practice. The unnamed narrator of “Sing Me to the Street” is a nihilist wandering empty streets filled with the sound of sirens, seeing nothing but, well, “nothing” everywhere he goes: He’s unmoved by the story of a single mother drowning her own baby and steals a sleeping bodega cat from an unmanned counter. Ivry-Block and Citron lift the song out of its doom and gloom, suggesting there’s some hope still in sight. Palberta and Public Practice also garnered Daily Dose spotlights last year for “Cherry Baby” and “Fate/Glory,” respectively.

’”Sing me to the Street’ is about loneliness, isolation and the dreamy allure of chaos,” explains Reid Bateh: “The song follows an unnamed character wandering the streets of a vast city that feels both alive and abandoned, as he attempts to silence the persistent song of oblivion singing in his head.”

Listen to “Sing Me to the Street” and check out Stray’s album art and tracklist below.

Stray Tracklist:
01. Miracle
02. Heat Lightning
03. Sing Me To The Street
04. Serafina
05. Death Croons
06. Stay Cruel
07. Ben & Lily
08. Made For Me
09. Sweat
10. Machete

Stray Album Art: