Philadelphia’s Hop Along have released the second single from their forthcoming album, Bark Your Head Off, Dog, out on April 6 via Saddle Creek.
After the announcement of their new album and the release of its first single, “How Simple,” the band have released a second, “Not Abel.”
While “How Simple” was an inward-looking track, the indie-folk, violin-filled “Not Abel” examines the actions of other people, particularly those of biblical figures. The band’s songwriter and lead vocalist Frances Quinlan says of the inspiration for the new track:
Karl Ove Knausgaard wrote a great book called A Time for Everything. I’d say it inspired a lot of little moments, in this song especially. At one point he writes about Cain and Abel, but approaches it with a far more intimate, even mundane lens, completely unlike the Bible, which is pretty bare of any personal description. As you spend a few days with them, Cain becomes increasingly sympathetic. It’s a funny thing trying to examine beliefs. Sympathy and understanding complicate everything too much I suppose.
Listen to “Not Abel” below and preorder Bark Your Head Off, Dog here.