Ducks Ltd.’s stellar debut Modern Fiction was accompanied by some Paste approved singles, including “18 Cigarettes,” which made our Best Songs of 2021 list. Today (Jan. 27), the duo treat fans to a new single “Sheets of Grey.”
The warmth of the jangly guitars and vocalist Tom McGreevy’s effortless croon give “Sheets of Grey” a familiarity. The Canadian duo channel their love for ‘80s pop with the subtlety of ‘70s folk rock in a delicate balance of flashy guitar melodies and pounding drums with honest storytelling.
Of the track, McGreevy said:
This song is actually one of the oldest in our catalog. We wrote it around the same time as “Get Bleak,” or maybe a little bit after, and played it live a bunch, but never quite finished it. We kept poking at it for a long time until we finally got it to where we wanted it to be, which happened during the Modern Fiction sessions. We ended up leaving it off the record as it didn’t quite thematically fit with the other songs, but I’m excited we’re finally getting to put it out as I’ve always liked it. It’s about the inertia of depression, and how hard it can be to break out of those cycles, but also about the pleasure of embracing that state. There is a certain, temporary comfort to be found in the abyss! Somewhere right before it inevitably becomes extremely awful.
Below, listen to “Sheets of Grey” or stream it on your preferred platform here. You can revisit “18 Cigarettes” as well as other tracks in our Best Songs of 2021 list here.