Daily Dose: Flyte, “White Roses” (feat. The Staves)
Images via Sequoia Ziff, Island Records
Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.
“White Roses,” the new collaboration between English indie-pop quartet Flyte and indie-folk trio The Staves, is as beautiful as its title would imply. The two acts met while touring with The Lemon Twigs, bonding over beer and The Office (U.K., of course), which eventually led to the Staveley-Taylor sisters lending their talents to “White Roses,” the first song (“the first of many to come,” they tease) of a new era for the up-and-coming Flyte.
Set at a funeral, “White Roses” juxtaposes mournful, contemplative lyrics with tranquil acoustic guitar strums, gentle, jangling hand percussion and The Staves’ preternaturally lovely vocalizations. Lead singer Will Taylor references both W. H. Auden’s poem “Funeral Blues” and The Truman Show, reckoning with loss and legacy as he circles the song’s central symbol: its eponymous white roses, said to represent new beginnings.