Frances Quinlan Couldn’t Sound More Tender on “Your Reply”

Frances Quinlan is soon releasing her debut solo effort Likewise, one of our most anticipated albums this year, due on Jan. 31 via Saddle Creek. Today (Jan. 9), she released a new single titled “Your Reply,” along with an announcement of an extended tour and art show pop-ups in New York City and Los Angeles featuring her own artwork. The pop-ups, which are completely free, will be at Selina Chelsea in N.Y.C. on Jan. 29 and Junior High in L.A. on March 13. She will be supported on tour by Asheville artist Indigo de Souza and pensive harpist Mary Lattimore. Quinlan will also play a special opening set in Milwaukee for Ben Gibbard, an indie-rock touchstone whose influence can easily be seen on the track.

“Your Reply” is shockingly bright, with domestic pianos that couple expertly with Quinlan’s meditations on the difficulties of long-consummated love. “There can be a one-sidedness to even the most loving and rewarding relationships,” Quinlan says of the track. The song exists in between conversation, a roadblock on the highway of communication. Comparing it to the unwitting self-destruction of lemmings, the titular reply seems like a response to a question that shouldn’t have been asked. The song is anything but dark, though. “I think of this song as celebratory,” Quinlan continues. “If anything, the speaker is frustrated at coming so close to understanding another person completely, but perhaps only just missing the mark. But still what a gift that is, to come close.” The track never presents love as Sisyphean, and instead posits that emotional clarity is learned through our encounters with the uncomfortable.

Listen to the track and check out Quinlan’s revised tour dates below.

Frances Quinlan Tour Dates:

January
13 – London, U.K. @ Rough Trade East In-Store
15 – London, U.K. @ Five Day Forecast Festival
19 – Chicago, Ill. @ Tomorrow Never Knows Festival at Sleeping Village +
23 – Milwaukee, Wis. @ Pabst Theater *
30 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Sultan Room

March
01 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Noise Pop at Swedish American Music Hall #
03 – Portland, Ore. @ Doug Fir #
05 – Seattle, Wash. @ Columbia City Theater #
06 – Vancouver, B.C. @ The Rubber Boot Club #
07 – Victoria, B.C. @ TBA #
11 – Big Sur, Calif. @ Henry Miller Memorial Library #
12 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Pico Union Project #
14 – San Diego, Calif. @ Casbah #
16-21 – Austin, Texas @ SXSW

(+ = support from Indigo De Souza)
(* = supporting Ben Gibbard)
(# = support from Mary Lattimore)